AOX | Adsorbable organically bound halogens |
APC | Air Pollution Control |
Art 75 committee | Refers to the Committee where Member States vote on the draft final BAT Conclusions in accordance to Article 75 of the IED |
AD | Anaerobic Digestion |
AMS | Automated Measuring System |
BP | Background Paper (commonly developed by the EIPPCB in advance of Final TWG meetings, summing up the various positions and setting out the European Commission’s proposals) |
BF | Bag Filter or Baghouse (common dust abatement technique) |
BAT | Best Available Techniques (IED Article 3(10): the “most effective and advanced stage in the development of activities and their methods of operation which indicates the practical suitability of particular techniques for providing the basis for emission limit values and other permit conditions designed to prevent and, where that is not practicable, to reduce emissions and the impact on the environment as a whole“.The notion of the three BAT elements are further clarified as follows:“best” = most effective in achieving high level of environmental protection as a whole“available” = developed at a scale which allows implementation in relevant industrial sector under economically and technically viable conditionsbased on cost/benefit considerations.“techniques” = technology used but also the way in which the installation is designed, built, maintained, operated and decommissioned. |
BATC | BAT conclusions (IED Article 3(12) : a document containing the parts of a BAT reference document laying down the conclusions on best available techniques, their description, information to assess their applicability, the emission levels associated with the best available techniques, associated monitoring, associated consumption levels and, where appropriate, relevant site remediation measures). These have clearly binding status under the IED. |
BATIS | BAT Information System (on-line information exchange forum) |
BREF | BAT reference document. Currently there are 33 BREFs, all are listed on The European Commission’s BREF webpage. |
BREF review rules | Commission Implementing Decision 2012/119/EU of 10 February 2012 laying down rules concerning guidance on the collection of data and on the drawing up of BAT reference documents and on their quality assurance referred to in Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on industrial emissions. |
BAT-AEL | BAT-Associated Emission Level (IED Art 3(13)) : the range of emission levels obtained under normal operating conditions using a best available technique or a combination of best available techniques, as described in BAT conclusions, expressed as an average over a given period of time, under specified reference conditions. |
BAT-AE(P)L | BAT-Associated Environmental Performance Level (IED Art 3(13)) e.g. abatement efficiency, water use consumption , energy efficiency etc |
BTEX | Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene (phenylethane) and xylenes |
BTX | Benzene, toluene, xylene (ortho-/meta-/para or mixtures thereof) |
BOD | Biochemical Oxygen Demand |
BT | Biological Treatment |
CV | Calorific Value e.g. in MJ/kg |
CAPEX | Capital expenditure |
CLM | Cement, Lime and Magnesium Oxide |
CO | Carbon Monoxyde |
COD | Chemical Oxygen Demand |
CFC(s) | Chloro Fluoro Carbons |
CHP | Combined Heat and Power |
CWW | Common Waste Water and Waste Gas Treatment/Management Systems in the Chemical Sector |
CEMS | Continuous emissions monitoring system |
EMAS | Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (Council Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009) |
ECM | Economics and Cross-Media |
ESP | Electrostatic Precipitator (common dust abatement technique) |
EFS | Emissions from Storage |
ELV | Emission Limit Value. (See IED Art. 3(5): the mass, expressed in terms of certain specific parameters, concentration and/or level of an emission, which may not be exceeded during one or more periods of time). ELVs are set in permits issued to plants covered by the IED. |
EoLV | End-of-Life Vehicles |
ENE | Energy Efficiency |
EMS | Environmental management systems |
EQS | Environmental Quality Standard. These are further defined in the IED under Article 3(6) and Article 18, where a clear link with BAT is established. Typically these refer to air quality and water quality standards set under EU environmental protection legislation. Additional measures should be set in operating permits -even if these go beyond BAT- in order to ensure compliance with EQS. EQS are therefore a strong driving force for industry to improve environmental performance. |
ECHA | European Chemicals Agency |
CEN | European committee for standardization |
EEA | European Environment Agency |
EIPPCB | European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau |
FM | Final Meeting |
FGT | Flue-gas treatment system |
FDM | Food Drink and Milk |
GHG | Greenhouse Gases e.g. CO2 |
HFC(s) | Halogenated Fluorocarbons |
HWI(s) | Hazardous waste incineration/incinerator(s) |
ICS | Industrial Cooling Systems |
IED | Industrial Emissions Directive (Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial emissions – IPPC Directive Recast) |
IPPC Directive | Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (Directive 2008/1/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2008 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control). This legislation has now been superseded by, and merged into, Chapter II of the IED. |
IRPP | Intensive Rearing of Pigs and Poultry |
I&S | Iron and Steel |
I-TEQ | International Toxic EQuivalent -derived for dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans by using the international toxic equivalence factors, as defined in Annex VI, part 2 of the IED |
JRC | Joint Research Centre of the European Commission |
ROM | JRC reference Report on Monitoring of emissions from IED installations |
KoM | Kick-off Meeting, the first meeting held at the start of a BREF drafting or revision |
LCP | Large Combustion Plant (with a total thermal rated input of >50MWth). Plants with a total thermal rated input below 50MWth are considered at EU level as “medium” combustion plants |
LVOC | Large Volume Organic Chemicals |
MBT | Mechanical Biological Treatment |
MT | Mechanical Treatment |
MS | Member State(s) |
MSW | Municipal Solid Waste |
MSWI(s) | Municipal Solid waste incineration/incinerator(s) |
MWEI | Management of Waste from Extractive Industries. Formally known as Management of Tailings and Waste-rock in Mining Activities (MTWR). |
NCV | Net calorific value |
NMVOC | Non Methane Volatile Organic Compounds |
NFM | Non-Ferrous Metals |
NOC | Normal Operating Conditions. (See OTNOC for distinction with what is considered as not “normal”). In waste incineration Effective Operation Time (EOT) is also used for regulatory compliance purposes |
OPEX | Operating expenditure/costs |
OTNOC | Other Than Normal Operating Conditions. This term is not clearly defined, but would include those situations judged as “not normal”. This includes the following situations: malfunctions, leaks, momentary stoppages. It is relevant for the compliance with the BAT-AEL, derived on environmental performance under “normal operating conditions”. This is a particularly relevant issue during start up and shut down conditions, where emissions are generally higher e.g. Large Combustion Plants. |
PM | Particulate matter (this includes PM 10 and PM2.5) |
ppm | parts per million |
POPs | Persistent Organic Pollutants |
PCT | Physico-chemical treatment |
PCB | Polychlorinated biphenyls |
PCDD/F | Polychlorinated dibenzo-dioxins and -furans |
PAH(s) | Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons |
PHS | Priority Hazardous Substance as specified in Annex X of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC and its daugther Directive 2013/39/EU as regards priority substances in the field of water policy (EQS Directive) . Maximum Allowable Concentration values (MAC) for these substances (21) or biota limits are set, which need to be met in EU surface waters. There is a phase out obligation on PHS, which means a 0 immission in water bodies of those substances to achieve “good chemical and ecological status” of EU surface waters |
PS | Priority Substance as specified in Annex X of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC and its daugther Directive 2013/39/EU as regards priority substances in the field of water policy (EQS Directive) . Maximum Allowable Concentration values (MAC) for these substances (21) or biota limits (Fluoranthene) are set, which need to be met in EU surface waters. There is a progressive emissions reduction obligation on PS in combination with maximum concentration values to achieve “good chemical and ecological status” of EU surface waters |
RDF | Refuse Derived Fuel |
REACH | EU Regulation on chemicals (Regulation 1907/2006/EC of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Autorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and establishing a European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) |
RTO | Regenerative thermal oxidiser |
SCR | Selective Catalytic Reduction (a common and the more effective secondary NOx abatement technique) |
SNCR | Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction (secondary NOx abatement technique, unlike SCR without catalyst and less effective) |
SRF | Solid Recovered Fuel |
STS | Surface Treatment with Solvents |
SVHC | Substance of Very High Concern (Chemicals of very high concern due to their inherent hazard potential, see Article 57 of REACH and the NGO SIN list) |
TWG | Technical Working Group (this commonly refers to the BREF working groups involved in the information exchange) |
NOx | The sum of nitrogen (II) oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) |
TOC | Total Organic Carbon. Total organic carbon, expressed as C, includes all organic compounds |
TSS | Total Suspended Solids. Mass concentration of all suspended solids, measured via filtration through glass fibre filters and gravimetry |
TVOC | Total Volatile Organic Compounds (in air), expressed as C (EN 12619) |
TEQ | Toxic Equivalents (used for expressing PCDD/F – refers to the same groupings and calculations detailed in IED) |
VOC | Volatile Organic Compound |
WEEE | Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment |
WI | Waste Incineration |
WtE | Waste to Energy – a term use to describe incinerators that recover heat and/or electricity |
WT | Waste Treatment |
WWT | Waste Water Treatment |
WWTP | Waste Water Treatment Plant |
WPC | Wood Preservation with Chemicals |