Detection of asbestos in post-earthquake building waste through hyperspectral imaging and micro-X-ray fluorescence

The aim of the work was to develop a non-destructive, accurate and rapid method able to recognize different types of Post-earthquake Building Waste (PBW), including Asbestos Containing Materials (ACM). The proposed approach is based on Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) in the short-wave infrared range (SWIR, 1000-2500 nm), followed by the implementation of a classification model based on hierarchical Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (hierarchical-PLS-DA). Micro-X-ray fluorescence (micro-XRF) analyses were carried out on the same samples in order to evaluate the reliability, robustness and analytical correctness of the proposed HSI approach. The achieved results showed that the applied technology is a valid solution that can be implemented at industrial level.