Environmental protection in practice from the Ruhr Metropolis
In the Ruhr Metropolis, the future market of mitigation and protection technologies (MST) stands for environmental protection in action. The solutions developed here address three issues: Keeping the air clean, reducing noise, and protecting and remediating soils. The Ruhr Metropolis, long dominated by the coal and steel industry, has developed new know-how from its own experience. Environmental technology from the Ruhr region is in demand worldwide.
Renewable energies grow strongly in the Ruhr Metropolis
In no other submarket have exports grown so strongly. From 2010 to 2020, exports from North Rhine-Westphalia rose by 4.3 percent each year to 800 million euros at last count. Filter technology and catalytic converters are particularly in demand internationally. In the aftermath of the Corona pandemic, demand for these products received another major boost: NRW exports increased by 14.2 percent in 2021. These figures come from the state's Environmental Economic Report 2022.
Another third of the future market for EEF is made up of innovations that make production processes and technologies more energy efficient. This is achieved, for example, by using waste heat, digital measurement and control technology, or intelligent circulation pumps.
Products such as filter technology and catalytic converters are in demand abroad
Thanks to the region's great innovative power, what is possible and what is economical is developing rapidly. In addition to the technical expertise to install the technology for better heating, ventilation, or lighting, for example, companies offer comprehensive consulting services.
According to the study, around 29,000 people are employed in the MST submarket in North Rhine-Westphalia, more than a quarter of them in the Ruhr Metropolis. They generate more than one in four euros of the state's gross value added in this region: 545 million of a total of 2.1 billion euros in 2020.
Making the air better: Good experience with environmental technology from the Ruhr region
If you want to show others how active environmental protection works, you have to start on your own doorstep. Here, the Ruhr region has made good progress. According to the Ruhr Regional Association, air pollution from nitrogen oxides and particulate matter produced by traffic, industry or heating has decreased, in some cases significantly.
Noise is also a burden. Noise barriers, walls, and windows serve to protect people from pollution and adverse health effects. On roads, porous asphalt helps reduce noise. Experts are working on innovative solutions for products and services that keep the air clean or reduce noise. These can include chemical substances such as activated carbon, basic materials such as textiles, or new materials that absorb and dampen sound. They also include specialized services to apply the technologies on site.
How brownfields are remediated and made usable again with nanotechnology
Every polluted area that is cleaned up and put to new use can preserve another that has a high ecological benefit. In the Ruhr Metropolis, new ideas have been and are being developed to protect soils from pollutants or to free formerly used brownfields from contaminated sites. In the run-up to the work, elaborate explorations and analyses are often necessary, using specially developed equipment for measuring, filtering or processing soils.
Sometimes contaminated soils must be excavated and disposed of. Other times, it is possible to remediate them on site. Highly engineered processes are emerging from universities, research institutes and young companies that remove pollutants with the help of nano- and microparticles, for example.
Environmental Economy Network
Active environmental protection means reducing pollution and, if possible, avoiding it altogether. With Greentech.Ruhr, we want to bundle and expand expertise in this internationally growing market of the future.
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Image credit: Ruhr Tourismus GmbH