APPLICATIONS
Mining
Modern day society demands more and more resources. Resources that have to be mined in a sustainable way, both for the environment and for the people working at the mine. SPECTRAL believes that it is possible to fulfil the demand for raw materials from the earth, with a minimum impact on the environment.
To support this vision, we develop LIBS-based sensors to allow for continuous monitoring of product streams. This allows for more accurate processing, better separation of ore and waste material and better exploration.
The advantages of our LIBS sensors it that they are able to determine the full elemental composition of any type of material in real-time and without sample preparation. This allows for instance for 24/7 monitoring of product streams without the need for taking samples. Also, the technique can be applied directly in the mine or during exploration without having to ship samples to the laboratory.
Examples of products that SPECTRAL is working on are:
- Mine face mapping
- Drill core scanning
- Drill cutting analysis
- Conveyer belt monitoring
- Potash quality monitoring
- Lithium detection
For an example of our work on drill core scanning please download our publication on this:
Production
Examples of applications of SPECTRAL’s LIBS-based sensors for production that SPECTRAL is developing are:
- Characterization of materials for 3D printing
- Monitoring of steel during production
- Potash quality monitoring
Recycling
Recycling, or also called “secondary mining”, is an increasingly popular method to fulfil the need for raw materials. But also recycling has to be done in a sustainable way. SPECTRAL is developing several LIBS-based sensor systems to improve the state-of-the art methods for recycling.
Although numerous sensors are available for separating material streams, industry still faces many challenges that can be solved by applying LIBS technology. Not all sensors are capable of operating at the speed of a running conveyor belt. Elements such as lithium, carbon and chlorine can be difficult or impossible to detect with other techniques.
Examples of products for the recycling industry that SPECTRAL is working on are:
- Bottom ash analysis
- Aluminum sorting
- Conveyer belt monitoring
- REE (Rare Earth Elements) characterization