European industrial emissions analyzed with novel environmental information system

Based on data in the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register and the life cycle approach, the Amalur EIS environmental information system, created by the Ekopol group of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), enables environmental impacts at national, regional and/or municipal level to be analyzed. The researchers also analyzed the results of data collected at industrial plants in the Basque Country between 2007 and 2022.

“Large industrial plants need to provide the administrations with data on their releases into the land, the water and the air, which the European Union records in the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR). However, this information is not very useful in its current form, so to analyze these data, we have created the Amalur EIS environmental information system to bring the impacts of all pollutants into a single indicator,” explained the UPV/EHU researcher Gorka Bueno.

The Amalur EIS system calculates the environmental impacts based on the information contained in the E-PRTR register; it uses data on releases into the land, air and water from 31,388 industrial plants across Europe between 2007 and 2022. It can also make calculations using 31 life cycle impact assessment methods, and includes 78 of the 91 pollutants regulated by the E-PRTR protocol.

It also takes into consideration various aspects of environmental impacts, such as climate change, toxicity to ecosystems and/or humans, tropospheric ozone generation, acidification, particle formation, etc. “We often focus on climate change, global warming, but we have to take into account that there are many other types of impacts and that, in addition to releases into the air, those into the water and the land also need to be borne in mind,” explained the Ecopol researcher.

Understanding the data in order to make decisions

As the member of the Ekopol research group Bueno explained, this system “converts and quantifies the emission data on industrial pollutants into environmental impacts.”

“Amalur EIS is a valuable tool for monitoring the transition to sustainability, especially in Europe. In fact, it provides an opportunity to obtain comprehensive information on the environmental impact, for example, to find out which facilities generate the greatest impacts in the economic sectors, and to identify economic sectors, etc.” The system aims to make the data available to the academic community, policymakers, companies and society.

So by using the methods recommended by the European Commission, including standardization and weighting steps, the Ekopol researchers used the Amalur EIS system to analyze data on Europe and the Basque Country.

Climate change has the greatest weight in Europe’s total environmental impact (68.6%), and “out of all industrial activities, the energy sector exerts the greatest impact (59.5% of the total). Geographically, these two elements coincide in the German regions of Düsseldorf, Cologne and Brandenburg, resulting in a concentration of the greatest regional impacts in Europe. In fact, Germany is the country with the greatest impact, accounting for 20.3% of the total,” explained the UPV/EHU researcher.

The information is presented in a very meaningful way on the Amalur EIS website, and the research is published in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

Environmental impact of industrial plants in the Basque Country

To demonstrate the tool’s potential, the Ekopol researchers have drawn many conclusions from the data and produced a list. According to these results, “The Petronor plants (Muskiz, Bizkaia) generate the greatest impact (25% of what all the plants generate). The six main plants in the mineral industry (mainly cement industries) account for 16.9% of the total impact and the seven thermal power plants account for 17% of the total (the second most polluting plants are the two Total Energies combined cycle plants located in Castejón, Navarre).”

The next sector on the list is the waste treatment sector, which accounts for 12.5% of the total impact (the Galindo WWTP is the fifth-most polluting plant, the Zabalgarbi incinerator the 12th and the Artigas landfill is ranked 23rd).

Geographically, Bizkaia is the province with the greatest impact, accounting for 52% of the total impact and 10 of the 25 most polluting installations; Navarre has seven installations and contributes 23.7% of the total impact; Gipuzkoa has five installations accounting for 17.8% of the total; Álava has three installations and 6.3% of the total; the Continental Basque Country only 0.5% of the total and the first polluting installation is ranked 55th.