ESA is actively engaged with progress with the WGC BREF which held its kick off technical review meeting in Seville, Spain from 25th to 29th September 2017.
The kick off meeting agreed 26 processes, and has added for the first time in a BREF, diffuse fugitive emissions (other than those planned to be flared or sent to flues).
A first for ESA
This gave ESA a real opportunity to input technical sealing information, and following a telephone consultation with senior members of the WGC working group, which was arranged by the Government Affairs Group, the ESA document on diffuse fugitive emissions has been accepted as a reference document. This means it has been loaded onto the Best Available Technology Information System (BATIS) for the WGC BREF.
Two BREFs
A meeting of IED Article 13, held in Brussels on 19-20th December 2017 decided that there would be two BREFs – WGC and LVIC, and POL BREF is to be dropped. EIPPCB held a new meeting 14/15 March in Seville, which confirmed that there should be two chemical BREFs: WGC; LVIC only. Hydrofluoric Acid is to be removed from LVIC BREF.
A draft questionnaire has been circulated and has been subject to many suggested alterations, particularly from CEFIC. One concerning comment is that a question has been raised as to why chemical sites should measure fugitive emissions as this is too difficult!
A new round of site visits is to take place 22nd to 25th October in Portugal and Spain.
We still need to finalise the ESA document on Fugitive Emissions Reduction as soon as possible.
David Mitchell, Standards and Legislation Director
Read also other parts of the Standards and Legislation report: