Geochemical technologies and methods

Modern geosciences demand for new analytical methods and require advanced technologies. To study mineralogical nano-scale processes we improved the GFZ ion probe (SIMS) to detect very low concentration of structural water and carbon. Both, anthropogenic and natural methane emission is regarded as a climate influencing factor (greenhouse gas). To detect methane fluxes we have built an airborne sensor together with the University of Bremen (MaMap). Geological storage of CO₂ is regarded as method to reduce anthropogenic CO₂ release from point sources. A borehole sensor to detect CO₂ in the underground has been patented and will be set up in forthcoming storage projects. A highly sensitive gas monitoring device was developed and installed in the world’s deepest ore mine in South Africa (3.500m) to study crustal gas fluxes. This enabled the direct observation of geogas released by seismic forces.

Current projects in this topic:
 

• CHEMKIN
• MaMap
• DAFGAS