A method for mitigating beam hardening image distortions, comprising: obtaining beam hardening corrected de-noised low and high energy line integrals, wherein the beam hardening corrected de-noised low and high energy line integrals are based on projection data generated by a detector array of an imaging system in response to scanning an object with the imaging system; smoothing the beam hardening corrected de-noised low and high energy line integrals by means of a smoothing processor, decomposing the smoothed beam hardening corrected de-noised low and high energy line integrals, by means of a photoelectric effect and Compton scatter decomposition processor, into smoothed photoelectric effect and Compton scatter sinograms; providing the output of the photoelectric effect and Compton scatter decomposition processor to a processor; generating a landmark volumetric image ( L low, high m) in a low and high energy image domain by means of the landmark processor, wherein the landmark volumetric image estimates a change of a value of an image pixel caused by adding a small amount of a known material to the pixel, wherein the generating of the landmark volumetric image ( L low, high m) is based on the smoothed photoelectric effect and Compton scatter sinograms; generating an air values image ( I low, high a) by means of the landmark processor in the low and high energy image domain, wherein the air values image estimates a value for each image pixel where a value of a pixel is replaced by a value representing air; and reconstructing, by means of a reconstruction processor, low and high energy line integrals and producing low and high energy volumetric images (I low, high) therefrom, wherein the reconstructing of the low and high energy volumetric images (I low, high) is based on the beam hardened corrected de-noised low and high energy line integrals; de-noising the low and high energy volumetric images by means of a structure propagation de-noising processor, which produces de-noised low and high energy volumetric images ( I low, high denoised); extracting by means of a material classification and quantification processor from the de-noised low and high energy volumetric images ( I low, high denoised) generated from the low and high energy line integrals, a material composition of each image pixel based on the landmark volumetric image ( L low, high m) and the air values image ( I low, high a), and generating a signal indicative of the extracted material composition. obtaining beam hardening corrected de-noised low and high energy line integrals, wherein the beam hardening corrected de-noised low and high energy line integrals are based on projection data generated by a detector array of an imaging system in response to scanning an object with the imaging system; smoothing the beam hardening corrected de-noised low and high energy line integrals by means of a smoothing processor, decomposing the smoothed beam hardening corrected de-noised low and high energy line integrals, by means of a photoelectric effect and Compton scatter decomposition processor, into smoothed photoelectric effect and Compton scatter sinograms; providing the output of the photoelectric effect and Compton scatter decomposition processor to a processor; generating a landmark volumetric image ( L low, high m) in a low and high energy image domain by means of the landmark processor, wherein the landmark volumetric image estimates a change of a value of an image pixel caused by adding a small amount of a known material to the pixel, wherein the generating of the landmark volumetric image ( L low, high m) is based on the smoothed photoelectric effect and Compton scatter sinograms; generating an air values image ( I low, high a) by means of the landmark processor in the low and high energy image domain, wherein the air values image estimates a value for each image pixel where a value of a pixel is replaced by a value representing air; and reconstructing, by means of a reconstruction processor, low and high energy line integrals and producing low and high energy volumetric images (I low, high) therefrom, wherein the reconstructing of the low and high energy volumetric images (I low, high) is based on the beam hardened corrected de-noised low and high energy line integrals; de-noising the low and high energy volumetric images by means of a structure propagation de-noising processor, which produces de-noised low and high energy volumetric images ( I low, high denoised); extracting by means of a material classification and quantification processor from the de-noised low and high energy volumetric images ( I low, high denoised) generated from the low and high energy line integrals, a material composition of each image pixel based on the landmark volumetric image ( L low, high m) and the air values image ( I low, high a), and generating a signal indicative of the extracted material composition.