Andema – Decarbonisation becomes measurable

Decarbonisation is an important measure in the fight against the climate change. Its aim is to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases mainly caused by the use of fossil fuels. Different measures are possible for the industry to achieve this, depending on the type of process and its boundary conditions. In order to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of decarbonisation measures, it is necessary to consider their usually complex effects both in production and in the supply and disposal processes and to quantify the respective emissions.

At the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, a methodology was developed in a research project as part of the federal model project "Unternehmen Revier", which makes it possible to determine the greenhouse gas emissions of the production process under investigation as realistically as possible. Based on the current state of the process, possible technical measures to reduce emissions are determined. The process is then modelled in terms of energy technology in the actual state and with the selected measures. The simulation results serve as the basis for the downstream environmental engineering analysis, in which the greenhouse gas emissions are calculated. The results are compared with each other and provided as a basis for decision-making for the company. The methodology described was implemented in the digital analysis tool "Andema" (analysis of decarbonisation measures).

The further development of the tool for various industrial processes and other environmental impacts is planned. The tool is to be used by the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and, in the future, also by external engineering service providers to support small and medium-sized regional companies in decarbonising their production processes.

This article originally appeared in German in issue 20 of the Lausitz Magazin and is published here with the kind permission of the editor, the zwei helden GmbH.