Advanced Sensor-Based Sorting & Control: Perspectives and Potentials for Securing Valuable Raw Materials

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the accelerating pace of digitalization has enabled the broader exploitation of both existing and novel data streams. This development has driven innovations in plant optimization, sensor-based sorting and the processing of material flows across various applications in the mining and recycling industry. The integration of machine learning and advanced sensing technologies, encompassing material monitoring as well as plant-wide monitoring, control and optimization, has greatly improved the detection, classification, and monitoring of material flows in real time and thus expanded the possibilities for process control, enhancing efficiency in both primary and secondary raw material sectors.

This Special Issue aims to address a crucial challenge for our generation and those to come: the mindful and sustainable utilization of finite resources within planetary boundaries. This is particularly important for the mining and recycling sectors, where sensor technologies and data-driven methods have catalyzed significant advancements over the past decades.

This Special Issue is closely linked to the 11th expert conference titled Sensor-Based Sorting & Control, which will take place from March 17 to 18, 2026, in Aachen. Representatives from industry and academia will submit abstracts and present the latest developments and applications in automated separation and sensor-based sorting, as well as innovative approaches for material monitoring and process optimization and control within the entire process chains of recycling and mineral processing.

Selected contributions from the conference will have the opportunity to be published as full papers in this Special Issue. In addition, this Special Issue also welcomes regular submissions that explore emerging technologies and their applications. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Advancements in multi-sensor systems;
• Improvements in single-particle detection;
• Methods of data processing and particle analysis;
• Deployment of sensors for online monitoring and process control;
• Utilization of data and information for increased plant efficiency;
• Optimization of peripheral processes.

Prof. Dr. Tobias Vraetz
Prof. Dr. Kathrin Greiff
Guest Editors

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