Adapting the European approach of Best Available Techniques: case studies from Chile and China

Best Available Techniques (BAT) are an essential element in European environmental legislation as required by the Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC 96/61/EG). The technology transfer to industrialising countries, however, requires the adaptation of the underlying criteria, due to differences in economic, legal and technical conditions. Additionally, their prevailing technology standards and different priorities concerning the affected environmental media (air, soil, water) must also be considered. At hand of case studies for VOC emission reduction and prevention for coating applications in Chile, China and Germany, the use of a metric for country-specific determination of BAT is proposed.