Eol boat composite products characterization by hyperspectral imaging

In this paper an innovative sensing approach, based on HyperSpectral Imaging (HSI), was developed and applied to characterize the products resulting from the mechanical processing of End of Life (EOL) boat hulls, constituted by composite materials (i.e. glass-reinforced plastic, marine plywood, gelcoat, resins, etc.), in order to perform their recovery. HSI was systematically applied to different materials constituting the composite as resulting from mechanical-physical processing. Investigations by HSI were carried out in the short wave infrared range (SWIR: 1000-2500 nm). The collected spectra were processed applying chemometric techniques (i.e. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA)). The proposed approach, combined with chemometric strategies, can represent an important step forward in this sector, allowing to develop, through a real-time evaluation of composite particle composition, new EOL composite boat processing/recycling approaches, finalized to maximize, and at the same to certify composite material quality and recovery, thus contributing to solve an important issue, that is the boat abandon and the consequent negative impact of durable-not degradable materials (i.e. glass fibers, plastics, resins, etc.) in the environment.