A brief introduction to IPPC and what it will mean to the PCB industry

Citation

Geraghty, K. (2004), "A brief introduction to IPPC and what it will mean to the PCB industry", Circuit World, Vol. 30 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.2004.21730aab.011

A brief introduction to IPPC and what it will mean to the PCB industry

A brief introduction to IPPC and what it will mean to the PCB industry

Keywords: IPPC, Printed circuit boards

In 1996, the EU enacted a Directive entitled Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC). The Directive establishes an integrated environmental approach to the regulation of certain industrial activities contained in Annex I of the Directive. The overall aim of the Directive is to achieve a high level of protection to the environment as a whole. To achieve this objective the Directive sets out an integrated permit system. As the wording suggests "integrated" means that the permit conditions must take into account all the environmental impacts of the plant and not just individual processes or activities. Therefore, IPPC covers emissions to air, water and land as well as energy efficiency, the use of raw materials, noise, prevention of accidents and risk management. The Directive also contains provisions for the restoration of sites when the regulated activity ceases.

The Directive was transposed into UK law through the Pollution Prevention and Control (England and Wales) Regulations 2000 and the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2000. The PCB industry will be affected, as the sector is specifically cited in section 2.3 of Schedule 1 of the regulations – the surface treatment of metals and plastics materials.

The PPC regulations divide industrial activities into two types of installation. Installations that are large and are considered to have a significant polluting capacity are categorised as Part A installations. With respect to the PCB industry, operators who make chemical changes to the surface of metal or plastic by immersion processes where the total volume of the tanks in which chemical change to the surface occurs exceeds 30 m³, will be categorised as Part A installations. The range of chemical processes included in the assessment of the threshold includes: plating (electro-electroless), anodising, electropolishing, phosphating, chromating, pickling decorative oxidation, bright dips, passivation and etching. Processes, which do not count towards the 30 m³ threshold, are: any activities, which do not involve immersion, rinsing, degreasing, physical cleaning (including electrolytic cleaning), electrophoretic painting and chemical milling. However, it should be noted that any or all of these activities might become part of the regulated installation once the 30 m³ threshold has been exceeded. Facilities that are categorised as Part A installations in England and Wales will come under the regulation of the Environment Agency and in Scotland the Part A installations will be regulated by SEPA.

Facilities that are considered to be smaller with a reduced capacity to pollute are classed as Part B installations and are to be regulated by the local authorities. For the PCB industry, Part B processes are defined as processes for the surface treatment of metal, which are likely to result in emissions into the air of any acid-forming oxide of nitrogen. However, it may be possible for operators of Part B installations to seek an exemption from regulation by the local authority on the grounds of triviality, as NO_x emissions resulting from nitric acid based solutions used in tin-stripping and similar processes are thought to be insignificant as not to require regulation.

In order to ensure a high level of environmental protection, the IPPC Directive stipulates that the permit conditions must be based on the use of best available techniques (BAT). To assist the regulatory bodies in the different Member States with deciding on what are the BATs for each industrial sector, the EC has organised an exchange of information between experts from industry, the regulatory authorities, and non-governmental environmental organisations (NGOs) from across all the Member States. The European IPPC Bureau has been tasked with co-ordinating this work and producing BREF documents (BAT Reference Documents) for each of the 30 or so affected industry sectors. All the BREF documents will be completed by the end of 2005, however a draft BREF document for the PCB industry is now available to download at http://www.ecogalvan.it/docs/BREF_surface_treatment.pdf. The BREF documents typically provide general sector information, details on the applied processes and techniques, current consumption and emission levels, techniques to consider in the determination of BAT and usually conclude with recommendations for BAT for the sector. More information on BREF documents is available from the BREF Web site http://eippcb.jrc.es/pages/BActivities.htm

Kate GeraghtyShipley Europe LtdJuly 2003