Description of need
Recycling facilities and metal scrap yards are experiencing a dramatic increase in the occurrence of fires. These fires cost millions of dollars in damages.
Why is this happening?
- Flammable substances like aerosols, paint, fuel canisters, ashes
- Li-ion batteries from vapes, cell phones, smartwatches, etc. They self-ignite when damaged during transport or crushing. 40% of waste management facilities are triggered by Li-ion batteries.
- Plastic waste that can’t be exported to China anymore, and facilities don’t know what to do with it.
Problem severity (1-10)
8
Who has this need
scrap yards and recycling plants
Total addressable market (TAM)
L
Solutions today, and their shortcomings
- Infrared cameras to quickly detect fires in a recycling facility
Startups:
- https://batterydetection.com/. High resolution x-ray inspection inspects through up to 40” of bulk recycling.
- Blazequel
- Visia
Potentially relevant capabilities
- Li-ion battery detection equipment company
- Thermal imaging to detect fires early (example: https://movitherm.com/mrf-early-fire-detection-with-cloud-connected-thermal-imaging-webinar/)
- Dual energy X-ray transmission. Current commercial sensors do not have sufficient resolution to distinguish between the dense metals or their alloys, or between the light metals and their alloys.
- X-ray fluorescence (WRF). Suffers from relatively low precision for and difficulty in detecting light elements. Has variable penetration depth.
- Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Sensitive to surface contamination and microstructural inhomogeneity. Struggles with Pb alloys and refractory metals.
- Prompt gamma neutron activation analysis (PGNAA). Widespread in mining industry. Newly developed D-T fusion neutron sources are now beginning to be deployed in PGNAA sensors for cross-belt analyzers. PGNAA cross belt analyzers, which do not have sufficient resolution to target individual scrap pieces.
- Mechanical sweeps (pneumatic or magnetic)
- Magnetic separations (including rare-earth based, but never HTS based)