Reduction of Emissions by Chemical Industry from the German Emission Control Act to the Industrial Emission Directive (IED)

Reduction of industrial emissions is a central target within the general goal of environmental protection. In Germany, the Emission Control Act of 1974 provided a thorough basis for emission restriction causing chemical industry to react and to start programs to reduce air pollution by technical measures, leading to a substantial improvement of the quality of life in the neighborhood of industrial complexes. Despite of large improvements achieved in the last decades, there is still room for more. In this paper an overview will be given about how these programs were applied in a medium size resin producing unit. Besides this, the impact of the new Industrial Emission Directive (IED) of the European Commission (2010/75/EU) for such a business will be discussed briefly.