EOMIRONMEIL 
I 
.*. € 
& 
£ 
x 
a 
= 
. 
+ SP 
Ka 
I 
de 
1 
r 
ubs.acs.orag/e-t 
Walg TG 
Nontargeted Screening to Unravel Offshore Wind Farm Chemical 
Fingerprints 
David Vanavermaete,* Pablo Zapata-Corella, Karien De Cauwer, Javier Castro-Jimenez, 
Elena Hengstmann, Torben Kirchgeorg, Koen Parmentier, Christof Van Poucke, 
Putu Yolanda Yulikayani, and Bavo De Witte 
Ye Read Online 
A Cite This: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c17939 
ACCESS | Lılıl Metrics & More | Article Recommendations 
| @& Supporting Information 
ABSTRACT: Offshore wind farms (OWFSs) play a crucial role in reducing 
carbon emissions and fossil fuel dependence, and their expansion is 
essential for meeting European energy and climate targets. Understanding 
‘heir ecological impact is therefore essential. While many environmental 
impacts of OWFSs are systematically monitored, chemical emissions remain 
argely overlooked. To address this gap, sediment samples were collected 
within and around OWFSs in the Belgian and German parts of the North 
Sea, along with reference samples from three types of reference sites. Non- 
:arget screening using GC-MS-EI and LC-HRMS-ESI+ detected over 8000 
compounds. Most of these compounds were omnipresent in the whole 
study area, but more than 1000 showed significantly higher abundance 
.nside OWFs. Tentative identification suggests that some of these 
compounds originate from epoxy and polyurethane coatings. These 
indings suggest that OWFSs contribute to the release of chemicals into the environment. However, the impact and effects of 
:hese chemicals are still unknown. 
KEYWORDS: chemical monitoring, offshore wind farms, organic contaminants, and non-targeted analysis 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Climate change has become a major environmental concern 
over the last decades, resulting in different efforts to reduce the 
impact of CO,, among other greenhouse gases.! Starting with 
:he Kyoto Agreement in 1998, different policies were put into 
play to push toward a climate-neutral Europe by 2050.” Wind 
energy plays a crucial role herein. In the first quarter of 2025, 
42.5% of the renewable energy in the EU was generated by wind, 
followed by hydro (29.2%) and solar (18.1%).* The first wind 
:urbine to convert wind energy to electricity dates back to 1887. 
Since then, the offshore wind energy sector has greatly 
expanded. By 2025, 37 GW of electricity is expected to be 
»roduced by offshore wind farms (OWFs) in European seas,* 
and it is expected to further increase to 60 GW by 2030.° 
Offshore wind turbines and scour protection introduce a hard 
substrate into the marine environment. Combined with the 
exclusion of fisheries, a diverse ecosystem is observed around 
these new structures with an increased biomass and biodiver- 
sity.”” However, the wind turbines also introduce different new 
stressors into the environment, such as underwater noise, 
electromagnetic fields, and potential collisions of sea birds with 
rotor blades.”? Therefore, the impact on marine organisms in 
OWFs is systematically monitored in various EU countries. ‘0! 
{n contrast, the study of chemical emissions from OWFSs has 
been strongly overlooked because of presumably low (and 
negligible) emissions compared to other sources, like the oil and 
zas industry.‘* Nevertheless, different potential sources are 
present, which could lead to a continuous, discontinuous, or 
accidental release of a large variety of chemical compounds and 
plastic) particles. A recent comprehensive review by 
Hengstmann et al.'* reported 228 chemicals potentially emitted 
by OWFs, including both organic (almost 70% of the listed 
compounds) and inorganic compounds. The effects on the 
marine ecosystems of either of these emitted compounds are still 
unclear.'°7!® The expected emission of OWFs is strongly 
dependent on the materials and technologies used. When 
sacrificial anodes are applied for corrosion protection, metal 
components and impurities are continuously released into the 
environment. Most of the potentially emitted organic 
compounds are expected to be released from coatings, which 
are also applied for corrosion protection in OWFs.'°7!® 
Received: December 11, 2025 
Revised: April 24, 2026 
Accepted: April 24, 2026 
A 
ZS Publications 
© XXXX American Chemical Society 
nttps://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c17939 
Environ. Sci. Technol. XXXX, XXX, XXX—-XXX