CNIM organises visits of energy recovery plants in France to take stock of the best available techniques

Hubert de Chefdebien, Director of Institutional Relations at CNIM Environnement and vice-president of FNADE (the French federation of pollution control and environmental activities), has been appointed by the Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition (environment ministry) to organise a visit to France for the European working group that is drafting the reference document on Best Available Techniques (BREF, BAT REFerence document) for recovering energy from waste incineration. This group is made up of experts from the European Commission (JRC-EIPPCB in Seville), from a number of member states and others representing non-governmental environmental associations.

The group will visit the Paris area from 27-29 June 2017, giving attendees the chance to see three municipal and similar waste-to-energy plants using different, highly efficient energy recovery and flue gas treatment techniques, as well as a hazardous waste incineration plant and a plant that converts bottom ash into aggregates for use in road building. Given the techniques presented, the aim of these visits is to add to or amend the first draft of the second-generation waste incineration BREF (WI-BREF Draft 1), which was published by the JRC-EIPPCB at the end of May.

It should be noted that the European experts made a special request to visit the Thiverval-Grignon plant, built and operated by CNIM on behalf of SIDOMPE.
This plant has been renovated several times since it was first commissioned in 1973 and is a perfect illustration of:
- the progress made through regular implementation of the Best Available Techniques (BAT),
- the integrated approach that forms the core the definition of BATs, with overall optimisation of flue gas treatment and energy efficiency leading to a change in the flue gas treatment method on one of the lines.

Although work is currently being done at the plant, it is still operating so the experts will be able to see that implementation of the latest Best Available Techniques does not disrupt service.