The European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau produces reference documents on Best Available Techniques, called BREFs. These documents give technical and descriptive information about the installations that represent a significant pollution potential in Europe. However, they do not provide an assessment of the Best Available Techniques, which is a decision to be made by the competent environmental authority. The present work proposes a decision making process for assessing Best Available Techniques based on the Analytic Network Process. Seven evaluation criteria, grouped into three clusters, have been proposed. The process is applied to a case study and the results are described and analyzed. As a main conclusion, this paper describes a robust and scientific method for a better implementation of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control approach.

After the adoption of the Industrial Emissions Directive in the European Union, requirements regarding emission limit values were made legally binding, and the competent authorities shall ensure that they do not exceed the emission levels associated with the best available techniques. This paper describes a two-stage method for the determination of best available techniques (BAT) and emission limit values (ELV) at installation level, applicable to all industrial sectors covered by the IED and to all pollutants to air and to water. This new method may support competent authorities to implement BAT conclusions into the IED permits. The determination of BAT is based on the use of analytical hierarchy process, while the ELV is determined by using corrective factors based on consumption and emission indicators from the installation. The method is applied in a case study on four existing cement installations in the region of Andalucia (Spain).

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