BATTELLE’S FIELD-TESTED AUTONOMOUS pCO2 MONITORING SYSTEM IS NOW COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE

Release Date: 8/20/2009

Columbus, OH—Battelle announced today that it has successfully transitioned the autonomous pCO₂ monitoring system to its Blazer Parkway manufacturing center. An analytical instrument designed to help scientists understand and predict climate change, the pCO₂ monitoring system was developed as part of an innovative cooperative effort with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

This monitoring system is the first offering from Battelle’s Seaology™ platform of scientific instruments. Seaology sensors will offer integrated environmental assessment and monitoring capabilities, including characterization of physical, chemical, and biological parameters.

This analytical instrument measures the partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO₂) in the ocean and atmosphere, which is needed to understand the global ocean uptake of atmospheric CO₂. The need for ocean carbon measurement is becoming increasingly important because high levels of carbon dioxide in the oceans have led to ocean acidification in surface waters, which could have significant effects on a variety of marine organisms and ecosystems.

The autonomous pCO₂ monitoring system is now commercially available. “The commercial release of this important technology is testimony to the strong, cooperative effort between two non-profit organizations and a government agency” said Spencer Pugh, VP and Manager of Battelle’s Industrial and International Market Sector.

The self-contained, modular design has the ability to be deployed on a wide variety of platforms and is designed to operate unattended for more than 12 months at a time. Currently, more than a dozen systems are placed on a variety of buoys around the world. NOAA is using this system to develop a global array of moored observation systems to determine air-sea flux in support of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS).

The system has a measurement range of 100 to 600 parts per million, with an extended range available upon request. The system also has a precision of about one part per million. The entire system is self-powered by batteries, contains compact flash memory storage and has an Iridium satellite communications link which allows data to be received in near real-time. This cost effective monitoring system is highly reliable and offers ease of operation, set-up and deployment.

The pCO₂ monitoring system is manufactured at Battelle’s 65,000-square-foot specialized scientific instrument Production and Field Support manufacturing facility in Dublin, Ohio. “We are pleased with Battelle’s commitment to quality and their efforts to advance Ocean Sciences. By having these instruments now manufactured by Battelle, we can focus our resources on deploying systems and developing other carbon sensors,” said Dr. Christopher Sabine, Supervisory Oceanographer at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.

The production of the pCO₂ monitoring system is just a portion of the manufacturing and logistics work done at the state-of-the-art Dublin manufacturing facility. The Blazer Parkway facility’s light manufacturing capacity and production of key electronic components is used for energy efficiency applications, the medical community, and the military.