Best Available Technology

The term “best available technologies” (best available techniques - BAT) first appeared in the directive of the working group on atmospheric air (AirFrameworkDirective - AFD) in 1984 and referred to emissions of pollutants into the atmospheric air from large industrial enterprises. Later, the principles of BAT were formulated in the directive of the EU Parliament and Council on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC), adopted on January 15, 2008, which in turn replaced the equivalent EU Directive 96/61 / EC of 24 September 1996 . In the future, a joint EU Directive on Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC Directive) was in force. In 2010, a modified wording of this directive was published, which eventually, along with six other directives regulating large industrial facilities, became part of the Industrial Emissions Directive - ^[1] . According to this document, industry reference books of the best existing technologies (BREF) ^[2] were developed and approved.

BAT reference books are one of the basic documents aimed at introducing BAT and establishing quality standards for a specific industry. The European BAT reference books are documents that provide a step-by-step description of BAT for each industry, given in Annex I to the Directive on Integrated Prevention and Control of Pollution on the Environment. These directories are used by regulatory bodies when issuing environmental permits to economic entities for the right to economic activities, as well as by economic entities when developing their environmental policies. European reference books BAT do not have the status of prescriptions, they do not set the limit values ​​of emissions / discharges, waste limits for a certain industrial sector.

To date, BAT handbooks are being developed in the EU in cooperation with member states, industrial enterprises and other interested parties. This work is coordinated by the European Bureau for Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control of the Advanced Technological Research Institute at the EU Joint Research Center in Seville (Spain) ^[3] .

Handbooks are developed by industry-specific technical working groups (TWGs). Formally, reference books are divided into two groups: "horizontal" and "vertical":

• “vertical” directories are prepared for use in one or more industries;

• “horizontal” directories are applicable to most industries.

Currently, the EU has developed 33 handbooks of BAT, of which 26 are “vertical” and 7 are “horizontal”.

In general, all reference documents contain the following information:

• legislative aspects;

• information on the development of a specific industry in the EU;

• technological description of traditionally used production processes;

• data on emissions (discharges), waste generation, consumption of raw materials and energy throughout the entire production cycle;

• technologies and methodologies used in identifying BAT;

• a brief description of BAT for a specific industry;

• assessment of possible environmental benefits in the implementation of BAT;

• data on limiting the applicability of BAT;

• economic indicators of BAT (capital and operating costs, consumption of raw materials and materials per unit of production, etc.);

• information about the latest technologies in the stage of research and development or pilot production.

Currently, the Russian Federation is developing a large-scale regulatory framework for regulating the procedure for obtaining integrated environmental permits and introducing the best available technologies. Amendments have been made to the federal law “On Environmental Protection” (dated July 21, 2014 No. 219-FZ) in terms of new concepts and definitions, categories of environmentally hazardous enterprises, requirements for the mandatory implementation of environmental efficiency programs, coefficients to negative impact rates. on the environment, etc. According to this law, the Government of the Russian Federation will establish:

• a list of BAT scopes for types of business and other activities characterized by significant levels and (or) volume of environmental impact and significant production volumes for a specific type of business and other activities;

• information and technical reference books of BAT will be developed (according to the order of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 2178-p dated October 31, 2014, a phased schedule for the creation of 47 branch reference manuals of BAT in 2015-2017 was approved);

• guidelines will be prepared for the development of programs for the implementation of BAT, approved by the federal executive body authorized by the Government of the Russian Federation.

In addition, a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 398-p dated March 19, 2014 ^[4] approved a set of measures aimed at avoiding the use of outdated and inefficient technologies, transition to the principles of BAT and the introduction of modern innovative technologies. The main activities in the framework of the approved set of measures are:

• creation of an interdepartmental council on the transition to the principles of BAT and the introduction of modern technologies;

• development of an action plan (“roadmap”) for the transition to the principles of BAT and the introduction of modern technologies in federal state unitary enterprises, federal budget institutions, state corporations, organizations with state participation;

• development of a regulatory legal framework to ensure the improvement of standards in the field of environmental protection and the transition of industry to the principles of BAT;

• development of regulatory and technical documents based on information technology manuals and BAT registers;

• development and implementation of a set of measures to stimulate the production in the Russian Federation of modern technical equipment that complies with the principles of BAT.

The head of Rosstandart, A. V. Abramov, signed Order No. 1920 of December 3, 2014, “On the Formation of the Bureau of Best Available Technologies” (NTD Bureau). The functions of the Bureau of BAT, coordinating the activities of technical working groups in the development of information and technical reference books on BAT, are assigned to the subordinate organization of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise All-Russian Research Institute of Materials and Technologies Standardization (FSUE VNII SMT). In accordance with the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1508 of December 28, 2016, the functions of the Bureau of BAT are entrusted to the established Center for Environmental and Industrial Policy ^[5] . In addition, by order of Rosstandart, a new technical committee on standardization “Best Available Technologies” No. 113 (TC “NDT”) was created, which has no international equivalent . The committee was established to provide Russian enterprises of various industries with documents on standardization in the field of BAT.

By the order of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation of August 28, 2014 No. 1651-p, the Industry Development Fund was formed. The main goals of creating a fund are to increase the availability of loans to finance production and technology projects, to stimulate modernization and create new industries based on the principles of the best available technologies, to stimulate the production of competitive products that ensure market import substitution. The objectives of the fund are the organization of expertise, selection, financing and support of projects aimed at introducing new technologies. The main instrument of the fund is concessional loans for industrial enterprises to finance the final stages of R & D and the preparation of feasibility studies, pre-project and project work. Successful completion of these stages allows you to go to the construction or mass production, which will be funded by other state development institutions or commercial banks.

• Boravsky B.V., Skobelev D.O., Venchikova V.R., Boravskaya T.V. Best Available Technologies. Aspects of practical application. - Moscow: Perot publishing house, 2014. - 184s.