With Norway’s most advanced instrument for detecting rare minerals, the CARM Centre in Grimstad aims to ensure that these minerals can be recovered.
“The goal is to develop new, automated methods for extracting rare minerals from waste. This will make us more sustainable and less dependent on the countries that control these minerals,” says Hege Indresand, researcher at NORCE Research and head of the Competence Centre for Automated Recovery of Critical Raw Materials (CARM).
The centre received NOK 5 million from Sparebanken Norge to purchase an advanced X‑ray spectroscopy instrument. The instrument, the first of its kind in Norway, has now been installed.
“This is a major step forward in developing automated solutions for recovering critical raw materials from waste,” says Indresand.
Today, sorting critical raw materials is often manual, time‑consuming, and inefficient. Extracting such materials from a TV or computer can be a painstaking process. CARM aims to change this through the use of robots, hyperspectral cameras, and advanced analytics. The new X‑ray spectroscopy instrument is a key component.
“Using X‑rays, the instrument can scan a material, such as a used circuit board, and quickly analyse which elements are present and where they are located. This knowledge is essential for being able to extract the elements,” explains Indresand.
Both she and NORCE Research already have many years of experience with X‑ray spectroscopy from the process industry in Southern Norway, but the new instrument represents a technological level previously found only in Germany, and soon in France.
“We are building a competence environment for electronic waste and recovery of rare minerals that does not exist anywhere else in Norway, and barely in Europe,” says Nabil Belbachir, research director at NORCE Research.
“The CARM Centre will offer a test lab where companies can try out technology for sorting and recycling. The University of Agder contributes expertise in mechatronics and batteries, while Mechatronics Innovation Lab provides robotics technology and testing facilities,” Belbachir explains.
He leads the European research project iBot4CRMs, which also uses robots and automation to recover critical raw materials.
“The goal is to contribute to a more resilient and self‑sufficient Europe by reducing dependence on countries such as the US and China. The CARM Centre in Grimstad will play an important role in this,” says Belbachir.
X‑ray spectroscopy is used in the iBot4CRMs project and is also promoted through a collaboration with Future Materials.
“The instrument will be made available for research and development, and the threshold for coming here to run tests should be low. If you have an interesting sample you want to examine, just get in touch,” Indresand says.
IN SHORT
CARM brings together strong research environments from NORCE, the University of Agder (UiA), and Mechatronics Innovation Lab (MIL).
Together they develop knowledge and technology within AI, sensors, and robotics to extract valuable elements from discarded products such as electronics, batteries, vehicles, and landfill materials.
A donation from Sparebanken Norge made it possible to purchase an X‑ray spectroscopy instrument capable of identifying the elemental composition of waste.