Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe

68 Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe
Photonic solutions contribute to
a sustainable recycling and waste
management. © Fotolia
of the produced levels of O 2 , COx and NOx makes
it possible to optimise the combustion process, increasing
efficiency, whilst producing the minimum
volume of harmful gases. In all these applications,
it has already been proven that EIR measurements
can provide viable solutions, but monitoring system
prices must be reduced by 1– 2 orders of magnitude
before EIR fuel quality checks and exhaust gas
analysis can become economically viable.
Building control: Stricter building codes for environmentally
friendly houses involve greater insulation
of buildings, to such a degree that internal
air quality is increasingly becoming an issue. In
particular, levels of CO 2 and some volatile organic
compounds causing unpleasant odors must be
controlled to optimise ventilation. The high prices
of existing EIR analysis systems imply that such solutions
will only be applied to large public buildings.
Price reduction would make it possible to provide
every low-energy house with this much-needed
capability.
Recycling and waste treatment: The sorting of
wastepaper, cardboard, plastics/polymers, fuels, industrial
waste, etc. for recycling or proper disposal
can be done at high speed using NIR/MIR analysis
systems. The current high cost means that only
larger facilities have such sorting systems. Lower
prices of these analysis devices will allow much
broader utilisation of automatic sorting systems.
Also, networks of local automatic plastics recognition
and tracking systems can be realised for
plastic waste in rivers, lakes and seas, thus reducing
the environmental contamination of plastic trash.
The total world waste market (from collection to
recycling) is about €300 billion
1517 .
Optical metrology: Optical 3D measuring systems
are essential components for high-precision
fabrication, as safety measures in automatic doors
and robotic workstations, in private and public
transportation, as well as in novel user interfaces
for computers and games. The precision of these
metrology systems could be substantially increased
and their ubiquitous outdoor use would be made
possible if the interference of background radiation
(sunlight) were reduced. According to the
European eye safety norm EN 60825, the maximum
permissible exposure in eye-safe metrology
systems may be increased by more than 100,000
times by shifting the wavelength of the active
light source to the range of 1.5–1.8 µm, beyond
the reach of silicon
1618 . The global optical metrology
market is about €20 billion.
Medical diagnostics: Novel approaches to noninvasive
medical diagnostics include breath analysis,
and it has been conclusively shown that a number
of relevant diseases, in particular cancer and diabetes,
can be detected by analysing the patient’s
breath for the presence of specific combinations
of biomarker gases. Such measurements can be
done using non-invasive optical techniques alone,
operating in the MIR spectral range. Providing that
prices of such breath analysers drop substantially,
17 P. Chalmin and C. Gaillochet, From Waste to Resource –
An Abstract of World Waste Survey 2009,
Edition Economica, Paris (F), 2009
18 IEC/EN 60825–1 , Safety of Laser Products, Part 1:
Equipment Classification, Requirements and Users
Guide, International Electrotechnic Commission
Geneva (Switzerland), 2007