Solvent Emissions (Scotland) Regulations 2004: guidance

Adhesive

means any preparation, including all the organic solvents or preparations containing organic solvents necessary for its proper application, which is used to adhere separate parts of a product.

Authorisation

authorisation shall mean a written decision by which the competent authority grants permission to operate all or part of an installation. In Scotland. "authorisation" means either an IPC/LAPC authorisation or a PPC permit.

Average Over 24 Hours

shall mean the arithmetic average of all valid readings taken during the 24 hour period of normal operation.

Competent Authority

shall mean the authority or authorities or bodies responsible under the legal provisions of the Member States for carrying out the obligations arising from this Directive. In Scotland SEPA is the competent authority.

Consumption

shall mean the total input of organic solvents into an installation per calendar year or any other 12-month period, less any volatile organic compounds that are recovered for reuse (see also reuse).

Contained Conditions

shall mean conditions under which an installation is operated such that the VOCs released from the activity are collected and discharged in a controlled way either via a stack or abatement equipment and are therefore not entirely fugitive. This differentiates contained from uncontained conditions. Uncontained activities are activities such as painting a ship in the open air, where all releases are fugitive.

Emission

shall mean any discharge of volatile organic compounds from an installation into the environment. Note that the definition of emission includes not just releases to air but also water and land and for certain activities, any VOC in the product.

Emission Limit Value

shall mean the mass of volatile organic compounds, expressed in terms of certain specific parameters, concentration, percentage and/or level of an emission, calculated at standard conditions, N, which may not be exceeded during one or more periods of time. For emission limit values in waste gases the usual parameters are mg C/Nm3, where N is standard conditions (273.15K and a pressure of 101.3kPa), and C is the number of grams of carbon in the VOC (e.g. 78 grams of benzene or one mole would be expressed as 72 grams of carbon for the purposes of SED).

Existing SED Installation

means an SED installation which was -

put into operation before 1st April 2001; or

put into operation on or after that date but before 1st April 2002, provided that

the operation of the installation was authorised by the grant of a permit or authorisation before 1st April 2001; or

an application for such a permit or authorisation was duly made before that date.

Fugitive Emissions

shall mean any emissions not in waste gases of volatile organic compounds into air, soil and water as well as, unless otherwise stated in Annex IIA, solvents contained in any products. They include un-captured emissions released to the outside environment via windows, doors, vents and similar openings. Note that fugitive emissions include releases into soil, water, air and for certain activities any VOC in the product. Fugitive emissions are principally defined as "emissions not in waste gases". Fugitive emissions include storage tank vents, extraction vents from building for hygiene purposes etc.

Halogenated Organic Solvent

means an organic solvent which contains at least one atom of bromine, chlorine, fluorine or iodine per molecule.

Ink

means a preparation, including all the organic solvents or preparations containing organic solvents necessary for its proper application which is used in a printing activity to impress text or images on to a surface.

Input

shall mean the quantity of organic solvents and their quantity in preparations used when carrying out an activity, including the solvents recycled inside and outside the installation, and which are counted every time they are used to carry out the activity. Essentially this means the total quantity of solvents used for the activity. For example if solvents were used in a batch process and the solvents were then recovered and reused in the next batch, then input would be the solvents used in the batch irrespective of whether they had be recovered or not from previous batches. It should also be noted that solvents in preparations used in the activity are also counted.

SED Installation

means a stationary technical unit where one or more activities listed in Part 1 ,Schedule 1, Chapter 7 of the Solvent Emission Regulations are carried out; and

any other location on the same site where any other directly associated activities are carried out which have a technical connection with the activities carried out on that site and which could have an effect on emissions.

Mass Flow (Mass Emission)

mass flow otherwise referred to in this guidance document as mass emission shall mean the quantity of VOCs released, in unit of mass/hour.

Nominal Capacity

shall mean the maximum mass input of organic solvents by an installation averaged over one day, if the installation is operated under conditions of normal operation at its design output. This is the maximum capacity over one day, with due allowance for maintenance and start up and shutdown. Day is a 24 hour period and nominal capacity would be on the basis that production takes place over the whole 24 hour period.

Normal Operation

shall mean all periods of operation of an installation or activity except start up and shut down operations and maintenance of equipment.

Operator

shall mean any natural or legal person who operates or controls the installation or, where this is provided for in national legislation, to whom decisive economic power over the technical functioning of the installation has been delegated.

Organic Compound

organic compound shall mean any compound containing at least the element carbon and one or more of hydrogen, halogens, oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus, silicon or nitrogen, with the exception of carbon oxides and inorganic carbonates and bicarbonates;

Organic Solvent

means any volatile organic compound which is used-

(a) alone or in combination with other agents, and without undergoing a chemical change, to dissolve raw materials, products or waste materials, or;

(b) as a cleaning agent to dissolve contaminants, or

(c) as a dissolver, or

(d) as a dispersion medium, or

(e) as a viscosity adjuster, or

(f) as a surface tension adjuster, or

(g) as a plasticiser, or

(h) as a preservative.

Preparation

shall mean mixtures or solutions composed of two or more substances.

Registration

shall mean a procedure, specified in a legal act, involving at least notification to the competent authority by the operator of the intention to operate an installation or activity falling within the scope of the SED.

Reuse

means the use of organic solvents recovered for any technical or commercial purpose and including use as a fuel but excluding the final disposal of such recovered organic solvent as waste. See Appendix 5 for a practical example.

Small SED Installation

means an SED installation which falls within the lower threshold band of items 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 13, 16 or 17 of Annex IIA to the SED or for the other activities of Annex IIA which have a solvent consumption of less than 10 tonnes/year. For the specified numbered activities there are two or more sets of emission limit values dependant on whether the plant is specified as a small installation.

Start Up & Shutdown Operations

shall mean operations whilst bringing an activity, an equipment item or a tank, into or out of service or into or out of an idling state. Regularly oscillating activity phases are not to be considered as start-ups and shutdowns.

Substances

shall mean any chemical element and its compounds, as they occur in the natural state or as produced by industry, whether in solid or liquid or gaseous form.

Substantial Change

Shall mean in relation to an installation or mobile plant, a change which, in the opinion of SEPA, may have significant negative effects on human beings or the environment or which in itself constitutes the carrying out of an activity falling within Schedule 1 exceeding any threshold therein, and shall include (except in relation to Part 1 of Schedule 3) - in relation to a small SED installation which does not fall wholly within the scope of the IPPC Directive, a change in the nominal capacity leading to an increase in emissions of volatile organic compounds of more than 25 percent; in relation to all other SED installations which do not fall wholly within the scope of the IPPC Directive, a change in the nominal capacity leading to an increase of emissions of volatile organic compounds of more than 10 per cent.

Total Emissions

shall mean the sum of fugitive emissions and emissions in waste gases.

Varnish

means a transparent coating.

Volatile Organic Compound (VOC)

shall mean any organic compound having at 293.15 K a vapour pressure of 0.01 kpa or more, or having a corresponding volatility under the particular conditions of use. For the purpose of activities falling within the scope of the SER 2004, the fraction of creosote which exceeds this value of vapour pressure at 293,15 K shall be considered as a VOC.

Waste Gases

shall mean the final gaseous discharge containing volatile organic compounds or other pollutants, from a stack or abatement equipment into air. The volumetric flow rates shall be expressed in m3/hr at standard conditions. The principal words are "final gaseous discharge….. from a stack or abatement equipment". It is the intent that waste gases are only defined as the final release of waste gases from the activity. All other releases should be regarded as fugitive. It is also expected that the flow will be sufficient to be measurable in m3/hr. Emission limit values (mg C/Nm3) are applied to waste gas streams. If the gas stream is saturated with VOCs such as a storage tank vent, or a nitrogen purge discharge from a storage tank, then the release must be regarded as fugitive as the use of emission limit values for a saturated gas stream would be inappropriate.