Best Available Techniques (BAT)
Best Available Techniques (BAT) have emerged as a key policy tool to prevent and control the emission of industrial pollutants, and thus to ensure the protection of human health and the environment. Different policies and practices are being implemented around the world to prevent and control the emission of pollutants in order to ensure a high level of environmental and human health protection.
BAT are the state-of-the-art and proved techniques for preventing and controlling industrial emissions and the wider environmental impact caused by industrial installations. The BAT concept has evolved as one of the key elements for setting emission limit values (ELVs) and other permit conditions in environmental permits for the installations. BAT are the advanced processes, facilities or methods of operation which indicate the practical suitability of a particular measure for limiting discharges. Using BAT allows establishment of environmental permits that are based on technological and economical evidence and on a participatory approach by the stakeholders. BAT-based permit conditions help achieving a high level of human health and environmental protection.
The BAT scheme details how to design, establish, evaluate and determine BAT in order to prevent and control the emission of industrial pollutants in your country. It is developed in four steps:
- Designing a BAT policy
- Establishing BAT
- Evaluating a BAT policy by measuring its effectiveness
- Building a national BAT-based system
- Value chain approaches to determining BAT for industrial installations