About Beta Analytic

A message from the President.

"Quality is remembered long after the work is done."

Our success comes from recognizing the needs of our clients and employing a management philosophy to satisfy those needs. Dedication to accuracy, fast delivery of results, and responsive customer service is at the core of our management philosophy. By innovating new techniques, keeping abreast of the latest technology and training qualified scientists to stay ahead of demand, we maintain our firm commitment to meeting the demands of our clients.

DARDEN HOOD
President

Beta Analytic Inc. (BETA) is located in Miami, Florida. It was founded in 1979 pursuant to enactment of Federal Regulation which required mitigation of archaeological sites associated with Native American interests. Since radiocarbon dating was the premier tool for determining the age of an archaeological site, the need for commercial facilities to meet the demand from contract archaeologists was eminent. BETA was founded with a commitment to meet that demand with rapid delivery and responsiveness to customer needs. Rapid delivery of results was essential to the emerging contract archaeology industry. Today the now-mature Cultural Resource Management industry continues to rely heavily on BETA for its radiocarbon dating needs.

Enactment of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 attracted BETA’s managers in similar fashion as did the Archaeological Resource Protection Act of 1979. The bill specifically requires Federal procurement agencies to purchase products with the highest biobased content. Since biobased content is a measure of present-day carbon vs. fossil carbon, only a minor modification in the final calculations was required to turn a “radiocarbon date” into a “biobased content certification”. With BETA’s expertise, facilities and customer oriented management philosophies already in place, it was well positioned to immediately provide a reliable resource to the emerging biobased manufacturing industry.

In 2003, under the direction of the USDA, the CIRAS facility at Iowa State University undertook a program to test BETA’s capabilities (as well as many other laboratories). By June of 2004, BETA had analyzed over 200 biobased products under controlled test conditions delivering all results within 1 to 3 weeks. Measures confirmed the viability of radiocarbon dating for biobased content certification and the commercial capabilities of BETA to provide a reliable service.

In January of 2004, BETA joined the American Society for Testing Materials subcommittee D20.96 to help author the ASTM standard for biobased content analysis using radiocarbon dating. The Standard was adopted in July 2004 as ASTM D 6866.

In 2006, Beta joined both the Stationery Emissions Society and the Institute of Clean Air Companies. Through outreach and collaboration within these organizations, Beta lead the effort to incorporate the ASTM-D6866 into the policies of biogenic CO2 vs. fossil CO2 regulation within US state and Federal Agencies. The method was directly applicable to such a use since it applied equally well to the quantification of bio-carbon content within any combination of solids, liquids and gases. Facilities combusting blended fuels of biomass and fossil origin would be able to report their biogenic vs. fossil CO2 emissions separately. This had application both within the regulatory environment and the within evolving carbon-credit trading markets. Beta's efforts and participatlead to the writing of ASTM-D7459-08 : Standard Practice for the Collection of Integrated Samples for the Speciation of  Biomass  (Biogenic) and  Fossil-Derived Carbon Dioxide Emitted from Stationary Emissions Sources

As of July 2008, Beta's outreach efforts resulted in incorporation of ASTM-D6866 into California laws regarding the mandatory reporting of greenhouse gases (AB 32) and for inclusion, along with ASTM-D7459, in EPA evolving Federal manatory greenhouse gas reporting guidelines.

Beta's continued efforts to meet the needs of its clients has resulted in a 2008 capacity approaching 2000 analyses per month, with delivery of results being within about 1 week from receipt of the product.