CAMBRIDGE, MA and CALGARY, AB (September 14, 2020) — Kuva Systems announced the launch today of its automated camera-based methane monitoring platform. Formerly known as MultiSensor Scientific, the debut coincides with the company’s formal rebranding as Kuva.  

The Kuva platform automatically generates color-coded video clips of invisible gas plumes when emission events are detected. By making the invisible measurable, and thereby manageable, Kuva equips oil and gas industry operators to continuously identify and reduce methane leaks and cost-effectively implement their ESG and methane intensity goals.

The breakthrough Kuva gas visualization technology, unlike other infrared camera solutions, differentiates gas leaks from thermal infrared background radiation in an oil field scene, providing the high confidence level of its automated gas detection measures by eliminating human error and costly false-positive alerts.

The new company name, Kuva, the Finnish word for “picture” or “image,” reflects the international make-up of the startup team and embodies the company mission to make invisible methane gas leaks evident and quantifiable so they can be prioritized and mitigated.

“This is an urgent mission,” explains Chief Engineer and Kuva co-founder, Jason Bylsma. “Methane is  28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. More than half of all methane emissions are related to human activities, including fugitive gas leaks and vents across the world’s oil fields.”

Leading oil and gas firms have committed to reduce methane emissions as part of their net-zero emission goals. The rising demand by industry leaders for more rigorous alternatives to the once-a-year optical gas inspection regulations is driving market growth for continuous monitoring solutions.

“Companies want to detect major emissions from abnormal system operations at their high-risk sites, recapture lost revenues from leaks, and demonstrate clean operations to investors, customers, and the public,” says Stefan Bokaemper, CEO and co-founder of Kuva Systems. “An installed camera-based monitoring solution eliminates the need for expensive secondary inspections, virtually eliminates false positives, and lowers the total-cost-of-ownership for monitoring risky assets before they become super-emitters.”

Simple to set-up and configure for autonomous operation the Kuva imaging system provides a versatile 360˙ field of view and relays captured data to a secure cloud-based server where it is accessible from any smart device or browser. The Kuva technology is protected worldwide by 6 patents, 15 patent applications, and numerous trade secrets.

Kuva Systems is starting field installations at up to 100 sites in Alberta, Canada. Testing in Texas is expected to start in October.  

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About Kuva:
Kuva Systems, formerly known as MultiSensor Scientific, offers an industrial IoT solution to continuously monitor and quantify methane and VOC emissions, providing actionable alerts with no false-positive readings. The Kuva infrared imaging system automatically detects and measures emissions and delivers direct alerts. Video clips of emissions, annotated with quantified release data, are directly transferred to customer’s work order management and production operation systems. Armed with this uniquely actionable information, customers can plan and implement mitigation and repairs without the expense of secondary manual inspections.