Foundry environment Air

European legislation on gaseous emissions is already abundant, but citizens' growing awareness of the quality of the air they breathe will increase the need for new texts and regulations to meet public expectations.

French and European foundries have made enormous strides over the last twenty years to comply with national and EU (European Union) regulations. They have invested in techniques for treating gaseous emissions, in particular for filtering fumes using high-performance bag filters, enabling them, for example, to discharge less than 5 mg.Nm ^-3 sec of dust. They have also reduced fugitive emissions by installing gas collection systems as close as possible to the sources of emission, in order to significantly limit potential health risks for the local population.

The revision of the foundry BREF will lead to the establishment of Europe-wide limit values for many gaseous pollutants, which should avoid the distortions of competition currently experienced between countries with the BREF in force.

On 1 ^er January 2005, the EU set up a greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme that enables a number of companies in the 27 Member States to sell and buy rights to emit CO ₂ , pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of October 13, 2003. Very large-capacity foundries came within the scope of this directive in 2013.

This article describes the specific regulations that apply to gaseous emissions from foundries, with particular reference to dust, heavy metals and organic pollutants, as well as dioxins and fine particles. The latter are increasingly under scrutiny, as their small aeraulic diameter means they are likely to penetrate the alveoli of the lungs. However, other industrial sectors, as well as transport, agriculture and domestic sources, also emit fine dust.

This document also presents some of the results of R&D work carried out by CITF (Centre technique des industries de la fonderie) with companies in the sector to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms by which certain pollutants - dioxins, volatile organic compounds and fine particles - are formed, as well as techniques for abating these gaseous compounds.

A glossary and table of acronyms are provided at the end of the article.