Samson Agro and NanoNord are cooperating to make MRI technology suitable for mobile slurry analysis. They consider its reliability to be greater than that of NIR technology.
( government) accounting purposes. That is why we started testing with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy about three years ago, together with NanoNord.” (See box: NMR: Physical phenomenon.)
Cheaper and smaller than MRI Ten years ago, Ole Jensen, founder, owner and general manager of the Danish NMR specialist NanoNord, who jokingly calls himself a ‘crazy inventor’, and the Danish University of Aarhus
NMR: Physical phenomenon
NMR is the abbreviation for Nuclear Magnet- ic Resonance spectroscopy. Simply put, nu- clei spin around their axis (nuclear spin) and, because nuclear nuclei have a plus and mi- nus pole, their spinning/rotation creates a magnetic field. With an external (electro) magnet you can resonate the electrically charged atomic nuclei so that they orientate themselves in a certain direction. If you then turn off the electromagnet and thus remove the magnetic field, the atoms return to their ground state. While doing so, the atoms emit radio waves with a frequency of 1 to 70 MHz, which can be measured with a coil. Based on the frequencies measured, and how often you measure those frequencies, you can make very accurate statements about how many -- and which -- atoms are present in a certain liquid. Now every variation of a cer-
tain atom, so-called isotopes, resonates dif- ferently and thus every isotope also emits dif- ferent radio waves. Knowing this, you can even detect different nitrogen isotopes such as 14N and 15N.
The chances are that you yourself have been in contact with NMR sensors, since MRI scan- ners in hospitals use exactly the same tech- nology. MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Neither technology involves X-rays or other nuclear radiation. MRI scanners usu- ally measure only hydrogen atoms in order to analyse the human body. “That’s because only the radio waves of hydrogen atoms reach far enough to be measured by the large MRI scanner,” says Ole Jensen of Danish NMR specialist NanoNord. “After all, a human body has to fit in an MRI scanner.”
came up with the idea of using NMR technolo- gy for detecting naturally occurring hard parti- cles (so-called catfines) such as aluminium and sand in heavy fuel oil. These particles cannot be filtered out and are harmful to marine en- gines, says Jensen. Nuclear Magnetic Reso- nance is also at the heart of the MRI scanners used in hospitals but, due to the size, the weight (the large magnet in it), the required computing power and the price of an MRI scanner, it is unsuitable for mobile use. Jensen and Aarhus University managed to re- duce the million-euro MRI technology to a sensor with a 7-kilo magnet and a price of up to € 80,000. After succeeding in producing that, Jensen thought, “it must also be possible to use this technology to determine the com- position of slurry.” That was about six years ago, and at last year’s Agritechnica, NanoNord and Samson demonstrated the prototype of their NMR sensor: the Samson SlurryLab. That prototype, the Tveskaeg Flow system, which measures approximately 75 by 40 by 25 cm and weighs 43 kilos, has a slightly lighter brother weighing 35 kilos, which is intended for lab measurements (the Tveskaeg Bench- top). The current processing time required to reliably measure liquids, the cycle time, is
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