Project Technical Board Meeting and Study Visit in Antwerp

The objective of the PTB meeting was mostly to discuss the development and status of WP 3 “Development of Best Available Techniques (BAT) sector report”, including the completed activities and status of the deliverables (technical audits and TWG) and the planning for the upcoming activities (next TWG meeting, BAT sector reports and technical databases).

In the afternoon a company visit was organised for all PTB and PMB members to get an insight in the Belgian approach and experience with implementing BAT, and the use of BAT reference documents and related checklists.

The visited company, Masureel (Zwevegem, Belgium), is specialised in the dying of yarns and preparation of weaving beams. The environmental manager welcomed all participants, and presented the company activities by showing a short company movie. Afterwards he explained the main environmental issues, i.e. water consumption and water discharge (pollution with bromine components). He also explained Masureel’s approach to deal with these problems and the main environmentally friendly techniques/BAT used: i.e. reduce use of water (due to high costs), use environmentally friendly dies (due to stringent discharge levels in Flanders), waste water treatment, collection of bromine contaminated waste water and treatment in specialised company (due to problems with discharge levels). He emphasized the use of VITO’s BAT checklist as a handy tool to get an overview of all possible improvements. He also explained the importance of proper inspection, and that constant control and follow-up of all process is key to prevent and reduce emissions, water and energy consumption.

More information about the main activities at Masureel can be found via: http://www.masureel-group.com/.

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