The Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen has made significant progress in the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions from steelworks.
Researchers have developed a method with which the emissions from steelworks can be measured and calculated independently. The method uses satellite data to analyze atmospheric composition in order to precisely quantify emissions.
Billions are currently being invested in Germany to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from steel production. The new possibilities of satellite measurement offer an alternative to the data previously provided mainly by the steel manufacturers themselves.
Precise detection of CO and CO2
The production of steel generates large quantities of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. During the large moorland fire in Emsland in 2018 in particular, it became clear that such emissions can also be detected from space, explains Dr. Heinrich Bovensmann from the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen.
"This was not an open fire, but one that was smouldering in the ground," says Heinrich Bovensmann. "Such a fire produces a particularly high level of carbon monoxide, which we were then able to visualize using the high-precision images from the Sentinel-5P earth observation satellite launched in 2017." The method was further developed to precisely determine the emissions from various German steel sites."
"We determined the CO emissions from steel sites and compared them to the CO2 emissions reported by the steel manufacturers for the same period," says postdoctoral researcher Oliver Schneising, who worked on the analysis of the satellite data. "This analysis shows a very high correlation of CO with CO2 across locations. This justifies determining the CO2 emissions from the CO observations."
A comprehensive monitoring system for Germany
The scientists' work is part of a larger research initiative – "Integrated Greenhouse Gas Monitoring System for Germany" (ITMS) – which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The project, which is being led by the German Weather Service and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, aims to develop a comprehensive system for monitoring greenhouse gases.
The ITMS project aims to develop and implement a system that combines atmospheric observations from the ground, from the air and from space with high-resolution emission inventories and high-resolution atmospheric models and uses them to monitor and document greenhouse gas sources and sinks, says Bovensmann.
The results of this research have been published in the renowned journal "Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics" of the European Geosciences Union.
