Electrostatic technologies often feature low energy consumption as one of the benefits. Back to Top Purifying and recycling waste materials using electrostatic separation Electrostatic separation is a highly versatile range of techniques which can be used to sort or purify many different materials. It has been used for many years in the mining industries for ore separation. Capacitive sensors find a wide range of applications such as non-contact sensors and proximity detectors. Design of a sensitive sensor to reliably and reproducibly detect the item of interest, whilst rejecting background fluctuations, requires an electronic circuit tailored with an optimised electrode design.
Many different techniques are available which can be used as the basis of a sensor design.
Electrode structures can be modelled using Finite Element computer techniques to optimise the design. I trained initially in electronics, achieving a BSc in 1979 at the University of Southampton before spending seven years in small companies in electronics research and development. I then returned to the University of Southampton to research ignition of materials by electrostatic discharges, achieving my PhD in this subject in 1993. I have contributed to British Standards Committees on electrostatics measurements, hazards, and the prevention of damage in the electronics industry. If you have any problems with static which you may be concerned about, or ideas about how static electricity might be useful, please contact me.