Enhancing spectroscopic systems for characterisation and sorting of metals and plastics in the context of a circular economy

The goal of this PhD is to develop methods and algorithms for spectroscopic characterisation and sorting for both metals and plastics in order to increase the yield and purity of recycled materials and to make better trade-offs from an economic and environmental perspective. The value and (re)applicability of recyclates strongly depends on their purity. To date the purity of many recyclates is alarmingly low, risking to result in significant scrap surpluses. Therefore, this PhD aims to overcome these challenges that the European recycling industry will face in the transition to a more circular economy by multi-disciplinary research focussing on the following three main aspects. The first aspect is the data collection on the demand for materials, as well as the development of methods to forecast changes and evolutions in these demands to quantify the risks of scrap surpluses. The second aspect will focus on the development of innovative methods to combine and tune algorithms for more accurate characterisation and sorting, considering both economic and environmental targets. The third aspect is the integration of the developed methods in characterisation and sorting systems. For this, the applicability of X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Fourier Transformation InfraRed (FTIR) will be investigated, whereas the main focus will be on integrating Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometry (LIBS) in enhanced plastic and metal characterisation and sorting systems.