Anglo-Norwegian R&D company Ladar Ltd has developed LADARTM (laser detection and ranging) system that can supercharge plastic detection capabilities for end-users involved in everything from environmental research and monitoring to marine clean-up campaigns and harvesting plastic for recycling
Huge amounts of plastic waste get dumped into the oceans every year, despoiling not only coastlines but triggering the agglomeration of vast islands of trash driven by the ocean currents. Estimates vary between eight and 15 million metric tonnes annually, according to DNV GL expert Arnstein Eknes. It’s about a lorry load every minute.
Lakes and rivers are likewise afflicted by an invasion of plastic that is eventually washed downstream to pollute estuaries and wetlands. “I’m getting more and more alarmed at the seriousness of this problem,” said Eknes. “No area of the planet is untouched.”
It is estimated that plastic ingestion is responsible for the death of one million marine animals every year. “Especially sea birds are paying a high price. One study showed that 80% of the stomach contents of the species under investigation was plastic, which they’d collected at sea and were feeding to their chicks. That is tragic in my book,” Eknes added.
Its microspectral LADARTM system developed over the last few years with early support from the EU’s Horizon 2020 fund is a game-changer in remote plastic detection and plugs an important technology gap. “I’m not aware of any other commercially available solution that can detect debris so accurately in the surface water layer,” said company founder Sverre Dokken.
LADARTM uses a laser beam pulse to provide reliable and long-range plastic detection with high-speed operation and no latency. Highly accurate measurement provides a full 3D perspective of the scanned area or target in real-time. Its laser bandwidth configuration can be adapted to different light wavelengths depending on requirements.
“In normal operating situations LADARTM can detect objects in the surface layer at a range of a few metres up to a nautical mile distant,” stated Dokken. This allows for the creation of an effective surveillance zone around a platform where plastic objects can be detected, characterised, classified and tracked. Relevant observational data is processed using AI algorithms and displayed in real-time via an intuitive GUI (graphical user interface).
Dokken said the system’s current set-up allows for a huge variety of applications related to plastic detection such as real-time 24/7 monitoring of specific areas such as rivers and coasts, harbours and ports, volume measurement also in different sea states, flow patterns and other essential research data. The system also enables plastic detection for targeted clean-up and catchment interventions by either manned or autonomous craft.
The system can accurately and precisely detect different sizes of plastic and display this data to enhance user performance, while also providing vital information with both prior to and after clean-up operations. Its 24/7 monitoring capability enables examination of plastic debris flow and breakdown cycle that can be inferred and used in modelling. “This information can subsequently assist in planning and management of clean-up activities, identifying main sources of plastic debris and optimum siting of catchment structures,” concluded Dokken.
With appropriate bandwidth reconfiguration, LADARTM also has the potential to detect and track micro- and nanoplastics in support of future environmental regulation of waste management and industry. It could also be used to protect fish farms in coastal areas sensitive to plastic pollution transported downstream by rivers following storms. “Microplastics are today very challenging to monitor, and a lot of scientists still don’t know about the potential long-term harmful effects. LADARTM can help in those efforts,” Dokken concluded.
