R&D World February 2020

Page 23

ANALYTICAL/TEST S

Gas Mapping LiDAR

Bridger Photonics’ airborne Gas Mapping LiDAR (GML) data service improves operational efficiency and helps reduce methane emissions for oil, gas, and other industries. It remotely detects, locates, and quantifies methane leaks and infrastructure status, making oil and gas companies safer and more efficient. GML leverages recent innovations in LiDAR and semiconductor optical amplifiers to sensitively image gas plumes, identify the source locations of leaks, and quantify the leak rates so that owners and operators can determine and prioritize repairs before even visiting the site. These capabilities can yield more than 300-fold efficiency improvement and reduced liability, compared to foot-patrol monitoring. GML’s innovative technology enables size, weight, and power compatible with light aircraft platforms, including drones, and is ideally positioned for future transition to photonic integrated circuits.

CellSight — rapid, native single-cell mass spectrometry The CellSight system, developed by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, provides a new analytical capability to solve the problem of elucidating the broad chemical makeup of a single cell. Society and industry rely extensively on our chemical understanding of cells to diagnose disease and to develop new and more effective therapeutics. Industries such as medicine, pharmaceuticals, and environmental monitoring need to detect, target, and chemically characterize cellular subpopulations out of the collective whole. The CellSight system provides an elegant solution to this problem by enabling rapid, untargeted, quantitative, in situ molecular characterization of single cells. This capability is crucial for investigating disease progression, identification, and treatment at the cellular level without requiring molecular labeling or other sample preparation procedures that can influence the native state of the cell. The CellSight system’s collective features distinguish it from any other single-cell analysis capability on the market, opening the door to numerous applications requiring single-cell mass spectrometric chemical analysis.

MC-15 Portable Neutron Multiplicity Detector: Helping emergency response teams quickly identify and assess nuclear-based threats Developed by scientists at Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia National Laboratories, the MC-15 Neutron Multiplicity Detector records neutrons to within 100-nanosecond resolution. The portable detector processes data in real time and can operate either from an easy-to-use onboard touchscreen or remotely from a computer connected to a local Ethernet. MC-15 is being used by highly trained teams at agencies such as the Departments of Energy and Justice to resolve radiological threats such as illegal nuclear development or nuclear material proliferation to nuclear terrorism attempts. MC-15 can also be used for research in nuclear data and radiation transport validation. Such research involves taking accurate measurements of subcritical assemblies that contain special nuclear material. The measurements contribute to the precision of nuclear constants, important to nuclear reactor design and modeling, and thus to their safe operation. With the MC-15, agencies can continue to ensure that the world remains a safer place. WWW.RDWORLDONLINE.COM

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