HOUSTON, TX /Marketwire/ -- SpectraSensors Inc. has been ranked fifth on Inc. magazine's list of the 50 fastest-growing private American companies in the environmental category, which includes a broad range of product and services companies. The company placed 583rd on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., with nearly 600% revenue growth from 2004 through 2007. SpectraSensors is a leading manufacturer and supplier of precision optical laser-based gas analyzers used by the natural gas, petrochemical, clean tech, and environmental monitoring industries to improve efficiency and product quality.
"Our second annual Inc. 5000 continues the most ambitious project in business journalism," said Inc. 5000 project manager Jim Melloan. "The Inc. 5000 gives an unrivalled portrait of young, underreported companies across all industries, doing fascinating things with cutting-edge business models, as well as older companies that are still showing impressive growth."
SpectraSensors was founded in 2001 as a technology spin-off of the NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. The company uses tunable diode lasers to improve the quality and efficiency of natural gas and petrochemical processing and to conduct environmental monitoring in a host of clean-tech applications. It enables customers such as Chevron (also an investor in the company), ConocoPhillips, and BP to operate in a cleaner and safer manner while also helping to improve product yields.
For example, in the clean tech market, SpectraSensors is helping Pacific Gas & Electric to harvest and transport methane as a safe, clean energy source. The company is also aiding weather forecasters in limiting commercial flight delays that cost the airline and freight industries more than $1 billion annually in wasted time and fuel.
"Our growth over the last several years has been sharply tied to the rise of energy prices and the energy industry's strong desires to increase efficiency and improve product quality," said George Balogh, CEO of SpectraSensors Inc. "The industry is rapidly becoming more automated, which is fueling increased demand for our products and the added speed and reliability they enable."
Unlike other sensor devices, SpectraSensors' products provide continuous, real-time monitoring capabilities. They supply unprecedented reliability and speed and require virtually no maintenance. The company's standard products include moisture sensors for atmospheric measurement, plus sensors that assess moisture and carbon dioxide levels in natural gas as it is transported through pipelines. Process applications are available for the measurement of other compounds.
The 2008 Inc. 5000 list measures revenue growth from 2004 through 2007. To qualify, companies must be U.S. based, privately held, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2007, and have had at least $200,000 in revenue in 2004 and at least $2 million in revenue in 2007.
About Inc. Magazine
Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures LLC, Inc. magazine is the "only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies that delivers real solutions for today's innovative company builders." With a total paid circulation of approximately 700,000, Inc. provides hands-on tools and market-tested strategies for managing people, finances, sales, marketing, and technology.
About SpectraSensors
SpectraSensors Inc. is a leading manufacturer of optically based gas and moisture analyzers for analytical process markets. SpectraSensors uses tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy in an array of products, such as ambient air monitoring, moisture analyzers (hygrometers), and gas analyzers for natural gas pipelines and processors, petrochemical refineries, and chemical companies. SpectraSensors' gas analyzers measure moisture, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, methane, ammonia, and more.