C/081





Recommendation on Best Available
Techniques at Agro-industrial Units
March 2004



Prepared by EMIS Expert Group.
ICPDR Document IC/081, 1 March 2004
International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River
Vienna International Centre D0412
P.O. Box 500
A-1400 Vienna, Austria
Phone: +(43 1) 26060 5738
Fax:
+(43 1) 26060 5895
e-mail: icpdr@unvienna.org
web:
http://www.icpdr.org/

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Recommendation on Best Available Techniques at
Agro-industrial Units


The Commission,

recalling Paragraph 1 of Article 2 of the Danube River Protection Convention in
which the Contracting Parties shall strive at achieving the goals of a sustainable and
equitable water management, including the conservation, improvement and the
rational use of surface waters and ground water in the catchment area as far as
possible;

recalling also Paragraph 2 of Article 2 of the Danube River Protection Convention
according to which the Contracting Parties pursuant to the provisions of this
Convention shall cooperate on fundamental water management issues and take all
appropriate legal, administrative and technical measures, to at least maintain and
improve the current environmental and water quality conditions of the Danube River
and of the waters in its catchment area and to prevent and reduce as far as possible
adverse impacts and changes occurring or likely to be caused;

recalling further Paragraph 2 b of Article 5 of the Danube River Protection
Convention in which the Contracting Parties shall separately or jointly adopt legal
provisions providing for requirements including time limits to be met by waste water
discharges;

recalling further Paragraph 1 of Article 7 of the Danube River Protection Convention
in which the Contracting Parties taking into account the proposals from the
International Commission shall set emission limits applicable to individual industrial
sectors or industries in terms of pollution loads and concentrations and based in the
best possible way on low- and non-waste technologies at source.

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Where hazardous substances are discharged, the emission limits shall be based on
the best available techniques for the abatement at source and/or for waste water
purification;
recalling further Part 1 of Annex 1 of the Danube River Protection Convention in
which the term "best available techniques" is defined;

recommends to the Contracting Parties of the Danube River Protection Convention
that the following measures should be applied:

1. Technical In-Plant Measures for the Reduction of Waste Water Volume and
Abatement of Pollution load

Waste water from agro-industrial units (manure like slurry, solid manure or urine,
compost etc.) should only be discharged if waste water volume and pollution load are
minimised by application of manure on farmland according to the principles of good
agricultural practice and by in-plant measures using best available techniques, i.a.
· Priority of application of manure on farmland over treatment and discharge into
surface waters;
· Set up of a "Manure Management Plan" considering the annual amount of
manure, the nutrient content, the maximum annual limits on nutrient application,
the necessary minimum storage capacity for manure, the required and the
available areas of land keeping free not suitable areas and buffer zones along all
water courses.
· Energy recovery through anaerobic pre-treatment;
· Prohibition of direct discharge of manure into groundwater;
· Separate collection and treatment of solid and liquid manure (except deep
bedding);
· Automatic control of storage of liquid manure and of treatment processes;
· Installation of safety mechanisms to prevent overfilling of liquid manure storage
vessels;
· Priority of mechanical cleaning over cleaning with liquids;

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· Use of vapour condensates for cleaning operations;
· Use of biodegradable cleaning agents;
· Use of peroxyacids instead of chlorine-containing cleaning agents and
disinfectants (for control of epidemics), to avoid generation of hazardous
chlorinated substances;
· Controlled discharge of waters containing disinfectants in order to protect
subsequent biological treatment steps;
· Separate collection and disposal of disinfectant rests and used concentrates;
· Separate sludge treatment and control of sludge quality before application.
Waste water discharges and the application of manure on farmland should be in
accordance with the relevant national and EU-regulations (Nitrates Directive
91/676/EEC, Integrated Pollution Prevention Control Directive 96/61/EC) and with the
permits issued by the authorities.

2. Reduction of Pollution Load by End-of-Pipe Measures

After implementation of relevant measures listed under chapter 1 at least
mechanical-biological treatment shall be ensured. Agro-industrial units which
discharge more than 100 m³/d either directly into water bodies, or to municipal waste
water treatment plants which have no mechanical-biological treatment yet, should
meet the following requirements. The values for concentration or for the percentage
of reduction shall apply alternatively.

BOD5
50 mg/l
or 70 ­ 90 % reduction
COD
200 mg/ l
or 75 % reduction
tot-N
50 mg/l *)
or 70 ­ 80 % reduction
tot-P
10 mg/l
or 80 % reduction

*) for plants with a raw waste water load more than 100 kg/d tot-N (according to the
standard N-values of annex 1) and if temperature in biological reactor is above 12 °C
BOD = BOD5 = five-day biochemical oxygen demand consumption with suppression
of nitrification
COD = CODcr = chemical oxygen demand consumption using the dichromate method

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Percentage of reduction = reduction in relation to the load of the influent
Internationally accepted standardised sampling (preferably 24 hour- or 2-hour
sampling), analysing and quality assurance methods (e.g. CEN-standards, ISO-
standards, DIN-standards and OECD-Guidelines) should be used whenever
available.
Wherever possible concentration values should be complemented with specific
production-orientated load values.

3. Environmental Management Improvement
To improve the environmental management and co-operation between the plant and
the permitting environmental authority and other organisations/institutions, in order to
implement this Recommendation, the following measures should be taken:

- the plant should provide a list with the number of animals per category
(comparable to Annex 1) and the quantities and ecotoxicological properties
(safety data sheet) of cleaning agents and disinfectants to the responsible
environmental authorities;
- self-controlling of the plant and its reporting should be specified by the
responsible environmental authority;
- the authorities should take into account the promotion of pilot projects in order to
establish examples for other plants;
- development and exchange of information including the work of farmers
associations and research should be intensified.

Recommends also that this Recommendation should be implemented from
from 1 January 2006;

Recommends further that the Contracting Parties should report (see Annex 2) to
the Commission on implementation of this Recommendation in 2008 and thereafter
every three years.

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Annex 1

Animal Categories and Standard Values for N in Manure:




Standard

Category
Subcategory
N-values
Subsidiary factors
(kg.animal-1
.year-1)




Dairy cows
Low N diet (2% N)
50
Liveweight, milk
yield

Medium N diet (2.5% N)
80
Liveweight, milk
yield

High N diet (3% N)
110
Liveweight, milk
yield




Sows
With piglets <10 kg
18
N loss from manure

With piglets - 25 kg
25
N loss from manure




Growing pigs
Normal feeding
10
N loss from manure

Biphasic feeding
8
N loss from manure




Laying hens
Low N loss
0.7
Diet

High N loss
0.4
Diet




Broilers
Occupancy -100%
0.4
N loss from manure

Occupancy 75%
0.3
N loss from manure




Other poultry
Slaughter weight 0.2 kg
0.07
N loss from manure

Slaughter weight 1 kg
0.18
N loss from manure

Slaughter weight 5 kg
0.5
N loss from manure

Slaughter weight 10 kg
0.8
N loss from manure




Ewes
Low N diet
10
Contribution lambs

High N diet
20
Contribution lambs







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Annex 2
Reporting Format for the Recommendation on Best Available Techniques at
Agro-industrial Units

Country: __________________________ Year: _________________________

The following items have to be reported:

1.
Number of plants which discharge more than 100 m³/d into water bodies or
municipal sewers

2.
Overall description of the situation referring to items 1 (in-plant measures) and 3
(Environmental management improvement).

3.
The following data have to be reported for every plant which discharges more
than 100 m³/d into water bodies:
3.1. Name of the plant
3.2. Name of water body and location of the plant (co-ordinates; indication if
within a "vulnerable zone" according to the EU Nitrates Directive)
3.3. Number of animals per category (comparable to Annex 1)
3.4. Waste water volume (m³/d, m³/a)
3.5. Discharge concentrations, loads, the mode of sampling (grab or 2h-, 8h- or
24h-sampling) and used methods of analysis


Concentration
Method of
Specific load
Annual load
mg/l (annual
sampling and
kg/t product
(t/a)
mean)
analysis
(if available)
COD




BOD5




tot-N *)




tot-P




*) only for plants with a raw waste water load more than 100 kg/d tot-N (according to
the standard N-values of annex 1).

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