Fast and robust NIRS-based characterization of raw organic waste: Using non-linear methods to handle water effects.

Fast characterization of organic waste using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been successfully developed in the last decade. However, up to now, an on-site use of this technology has been hindered by necessary sample preparation steps (freeze-drying and grinding) to avoid important water effects on NIRS. Recent research studies have shown that these effects are highly non-linear and relate both to the biochemical and physical properties of samples.

Preprocessing NIR Spectra for Aquaphotomics.

Even though NIR spectroscopy is based on the Beer-Lambert law, which clearly relates the concentration of the absorbing elements with the absorbance, the measured spectra are subject to spurious signals, such as additive and multiplicative effects. The use of NIR spectra, therefore, requires a preprocessing step. This article reviews the main preprocessing methods in the light of aquaphotomics.

On-site substrate characterization in the anaerobic digestion context: A dataset of near infrared spectra acquired with four different optical systems on freeze-dried and ground organic waste.

The near infrared spectra of thirty-three freeze-dried and ground organic waste samples of various biochemical composition were collected on four different optical systems, including a laboratory spectrometer, a transportable spectrometer with two measurement configurations (an immersed probe, and a polarized light system) and a micro-spectrometer. The provided data contains one file per spectroscopic system including the reflectance or absorbance spectra with the corresponding sample name and wavelengths. A reference data file containing carbohydrates, lipid and nitrogen content, biochemical methane potential (BMP) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) for each sample is also provided.

Relating Near-Infrared Light Path-Length Modifications to the Water Content of Scattering Media in Near-Infrared Spectroscopy: Toward a New Bouguer-Beer-Lambert Law.

In near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), the linear relationship between absorbance and an absorbing compound concentration has been strictly defined by the Bouguer-Beer-Lambert law only for the case of transmission measurements of nonscattering media. However, various quantitative calibrations have been successfully built both on reflectance measurements and for scattering media. Although the lack of linearity for scattering media has been observed experimentally, the sound multivariate statistics and signal processing involved in chemometrics have allowed us to overcome this problem in most cases.

Fast at-line characterization of solid organic waste: Comparing analytical performance of different compact near infrared spectroscopic systems with different measurement configurations.

Fast characterization of solid organic waste using near infrared spectroscopy has been successfully developed in the last decade. However, its adoption in biogas plants for monitoring the feeding substrates remains limited due to the lack of applicability and high costs. Recent evolutions in the technology have given rise to both more compact and more modular low-cost near infrared systems which could allow a larger scale deployment.