Innovative In-situ Sensing Techniques for Demolition Waste Quality Assessment

The recycling of end-of-life concrete into new concrete is one of the most interesting options for reducing worldwide natural resources use and emissions associated with the building materials sector. The possibility to realize a larger re-use of silica aggregates from old concrete, strongly contributes to reduce environmental impact (reduced exploitation of natural resources, reduction of CO2 emissions, airborne dust production, etc.). To reach this goal, a new analytical approach, based on hyperspectral sensing techniques, is proposed in order to perform an automatic quality control assessment finalized to maintain an high standards of concrete demolition waste from the earliest stage of recycling to the further processing stages, according to the detected demolition waste characteristics. The paper is finalized to analyze and evaluate the problems related to the integration of this approach with state-of-the-art demolition and building processes and procedures.