In December 2019, the European IPPC Bureau published 2 new Best Reference Guidelines (BREFs) for: Food, Drink and Milk Industries and Waste Incineration. These two particular BREFs have something in common, they both include the Odour Management Plan (OMP) as one of the Best Available Techniques (BAT) for odour control and/or monitoring.

   There are over 30 BREF documents published to date for a set of industrial activities under the European Industrial Emissions Directive (IED). Unfortunately, odour impact was something not very well taken into account in the oldest BREF, but this is finally changing in the revisions being published along the last years. From now on, any food/drink industry or any waste incineration plant in Europe will need to carry out an Odour Management Plan when needed, as it is listed as one of the BATs.

   Resolution 1541 of 2013 of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development MINAMBIENTE (Colombia) establishes the air quality or immission standards for the mixture of offensive odors considering the type of activity that generates odors.

   These immission standards are given in European Odor Units per cubic meter (OUE/m³) expressed as the 98th percentile of the hours modeled during a year. This type of model separates 2% of odor events in which there are concentrations of immission above the regulation, which corresponds to a tolerance of 175.2 hours in a year in which there could be a higher concentration of odor, ie , approximately 30 minutes a day.

J. Cardona

Gestión y Servicios Ambientales S.A.S.(GSA SAS) - Medellín (Colombia)