Applied Nanotech Receives Contract to Develop Methane Sensor

Applied Nanotech Holdings, Inc. announced that it has received a contract from NYSEARCH - Northeast Gas Association (NGA), worth more than $500,000, to fund prototype development of a small, reliable, low-cost methane (natural gas) sensor for residential and industrial applications. The Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) of the US Department of Transportation is cofunding this program.

Natural gas is predominantly made up of methane. The methane sensor will be used in detecting natural gas leaks and other safety and analytical tool applications. The sensor will be capable of measuring the methane concentration from 0% to 100% in air at different pressures, different relative humidity levels, and in a wide temperature range. As a safety sensor, the measurement range of primary interest corresponds to 0.25% to approximately 5% gas concentration in air. The sensor technology is designed to be sensitive only to methane, and will not respond to other hydrocarbons, thus reducing the occurrence of false alarms that plague other methane sensor technologies.

This contract follows up on earlier phases of the program funding development of engineering prototypes that demonstrated feasibility in field trials at NGA member companies. This contract will take the engineering sensor prototype to the next stage of design and fabrication of fully functional natural gas sensor commercial prototypes ready for manufacturing, working with strategic partners. The sensor is compatible with a mobile platform.

"We are very encouraged by the progress of this technology towards commercialization," said Dr. Zvi Yaniv, President and Chief Operating Officer of APNT. "This contract recognizes the importance of this technology to natural gas safety applications and demonstrates our progress in commercializing APNT core technologies."

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