BAT reference documents

BAT reference documents (BREFs) represent the outcome of the ‘Sevilla process’. The majority of BREFs cover specific agro-industrial activities; such BREFs are referred to as 'sectoral BREFs'. However, there are also a number of 'horizontal BREFs' dealing with cross-cutting issues such as energy efficiency, industrial cooling systems or emissions from storage with relevance for industrial manufacturing in general. A specific BREF was developed for the monitoring of emissions to air and water from installations under the Industrial Emissions Directive, which is referred to as the 'ROM'. The table below presents in alphabetical order a list of all BREFs drawn up to date.

The first BREFs were established under Directive 2008/1/EC that codified rules for permitting industrial installations, as laid out by the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive 96/61/EC. The IPPC Directive was later repealed by the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) 2010/75/EU. For BREFs adopted under the IED, the table shows in the column "Adopted/Published document" also the BAT conclusions adopted by a committee procedure according to IED Article 13(5). The "BAT conclusions" is a document containing the parts of a BREF laying down the conclusions on best available techniques. According to Article 14(3) of the IED, BAT conclusions shall be the reference for setting emission limits and issuing operating permits for large agro-industrial installations covered under Annex I of the Industrial Emissions Directive.

BREFs are structured as follows:

Preface and scope
General information about the sector
Applied processes and techniques
Current emission and consumption levels
Techniques to consider in the determination of BAT
BAT conclusions
Emerging techniques
Concluding remarks and recommendations for future work
References
Glossary of terms and abbreviations
Annexes (depending on sector and availability of information)

Other reference documents

For reference documents that were not developed under the IPPC Directive/IED (i.e. Management of Waste from Extractive Industries Tailings (MWEI) as well as Hydro-Carbons exploration and extraction (HC)), please click here.

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Archived reference documents
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BREFs under other policies
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Translations
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- Formal draft (B)REFs have no legal value. They only reflect work in progress and are available for information only to those interested in the exchange of information under Article 13(1) of the IED.
- For further planning, please consult the latest iteration in the EIPPCB work programme for the revision of BAT reference documents (BREF); the EIPPCB work programme updates can be found by following the works of the IED art. 13 forum.
- REF or ‘reference document’ or ‘reference report' means a document, which is not a BREF, used as the main reference for a specific horizontal task or topic in the Sevilla process.
- BATC or ‘BAT conclusions' means 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.
- Under the Commission Decision of 12 December 2011 on the Re-use of Commission Documents (2011/833/EU), the BREF documents are subject to free re-use, except for parts covered by any third-party rights which may be present in the documents (such as images, tables, data, written material, or similar, the rights to which need to be acquired separately from their respective rights-holders for further use). The European Commission is not liable for any consequence stemming from the re-use of these documents. Any re-use is subject to the acknowledgement of the source and non-distortion of the original meaning or message.

BAT reference documents

Archived reference documents

BREFs under other policies

Translations