There is a worldwide need for efficient inspection of cargo containers at airports, seaports and road border crossings. The main objectives are the detection of contraband such as illicit drugs, explosives and weapons. Due to the large volume of cargo passing through Australia's airports every day, it is critical that any scanning system should be capable of working on unpacked or consolidated cargo, taking at most 1-2 minutes per container. CSIRO has developed a fast-neutron/gamma-ray radiography (FNGR) method for the rapid screening of air freight. By combining radiographs obtained using 14 MeV neutrons and 60Co gamma-rays, high resolution images showing both density and material composition are obtained. A near full-scale prototype scanner has been successfully tested in the laboratory. With the support of the Australian Customs Service, a full-scale scanner has recently been installed and commissioned at Brisbane International Airport.
The HIsmelt Process is a direct smelting process involving a coal-injected smelting reactor with the off-gas passing through a circulating fluidised bed in which fine iron ore is pre-reduced and pre-heated. Control of the pre-reduction system would benefit from an on-line measurement of the degree of pre-reduction (PRD). However, the on-line measurements need to be made on hot ore in circumstances where access to representative sample streams is very difficult. An on-line gauge based on the measurement of neutron inelastic scatter gamma-rays has been installed and calibrated at the HIsmelt plant in Kwinana, Western Australia. The gauge uses an 241Am-Be neutron source and a BGO detector inside a water-cooled tube surrounded by hot iron ore. THe gauge monitors the iron, oxygen, carbon and silica contents of the ore based neutron inelastic scatter gamma-rays at 0.85, 6.13, 4.43 and 1.78 MeV respectively. In plant trials at HIsmelt the gauge determined iron, oxygen, carbon, silica and PRD to within 2.2 wt. percent, 0.6 wt. percent, 0.5 wt. percent, 1.0 wt. percent and 0.4 percent respectively. Potential application so this technology in other direct reduction and smelting processes will also be discussed.
The application of on-line analysis techniques in the mineral industry allows rapid and accurate analyses to be provided in real time for improved control of processes. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Division of Mineral and Process Engineering has developed a number of on-line analysis systems based on neutron techniques for use in the Australian minerals industry. This paper describes the development of neutron-induced gamma-ray techniques in two different industrial applications, namely, the on-line analysis of low rank coal and the on-line measurement of pre-reduction degree in iron ores.
Conference Committee Involvement (1)
Non-Intrusive Inspection Technologies
17 April 2006 | Orlando (Kissimmee), Florida, United States
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