Solvent Consuming Activities

Any activity in which an adhesive is applied to a surface, with the exception of adhesive coating and laminating associated with printing activities. Adhesive coating involves the application of adhesives by spray, roller, brush and other techniques to a variety of substrates

Any activity whereby a single or multiple application of a continuous film of coating is applied to the following

• • Vehicles including:
    • New cars (defined as vehicles of category M1)
    • Truck cabins (defined as the housing for the driver of vehicles of categories N2 and N3)
    • Vans & trucks (defined as vehicles of categories N1, N2 and N3)
    • Buses (defined as vehicles of categories M2 and M3)
    • Trailers (defined in categories O1, O2, O3 and O4)
  • Other coating, including metal, plastic, textile, fabric, film and paper coating
  • Coating of wooden surfaces
  • Coating of leather

Any activity where coiled steel, stainless steel, coated steel, copper alloys or aluminium strip is coated with either a film forming or laminate coating in a continuous process. A wide variety of coating formulations is used by the coil coating industry. The more prevalent coating types include polyesters, acrylics, polyfluorocarbons, alkyds, vinyls and plastisols.

Any industrial or commercial activity using VOCs in an installation to clean garments, furnishing and similar consumer goods with the exception of the manual removal of stains and spots in the textile and clothing industry. Installations providing laundry services only shall be excluded from this list.

Any activity of producing complete footwear or parts thereof. The VOC emissions in the production of footwear result mainly from adhesives containing organic solvents. The content of organic solvents in shoe adhesives is around 75 – 80 % (weight per cent). Solvent based adhesives have a portion of 67 %, adhesive dispersions have a portion of 16 % and hotmelts have a portion of 17 % of the sectors´ total consumption.

The manufacture of any coating preparations, varnishes, inks and adhesives. This also includes the manufacture of intermediates (where carried out at the same site), by mixing of pigments, resins and adhesive materials with organic solvent or other carrier, including dispersion and predispersion activities, viscosity and tint adjustments and operations for filling the final product into its container.

The chemical synthesis, fermentation, extraction, formulation and finishing of pharmaceutical products and where carried out at the same site, the manufacture of intermediate products. It is important to note that pharmaceutical companies manufacturing API’s (active product ingredients) are subject to IPPC permits, while the production of other pharmaceutical products, including intermediates, requires an environmental permit.

Any reproduction activity of text and/or images in which, with the use of an image carrier, ink is transferred onto whatever type of surface. It includes associated varnishing, coating and laminating techniques. However, only the following sub-processes are subject to these regulations:

• Flexography: A printing activity using an image carrier of rubber or elastic photopolymers on which the printing areas are above the non-printing areas, using liquid inks which dry through evaporation. Flexography is a web-fed process and is mainly used to print packaging materials such as plastic films and metal foils.
• Heatset web offset printing: a web-fed printing activity using an image carrier in which the printing and non-printing area are in the same plane, where web-fed means that the material to be printed is fed to the machine from a reel as distinct from separate sheets. The non-printing area is treated to attract water and thus reject ink. The printing area is treated to receive and transmit ink to the surface to be printed. Evaporation takes place in an oven where hot air is used to heat the printed material.
• Laminating: A process which is normally associated to a printing activity. This involves the adhering together of two or more flexible materials to produce laminates.
• Publication rotogravure: A rotogravure printing activity used for printing paper for magazines, brochures, catalogs or similar products, using toluene-based links.
• Rotogravure: A printing activity using a cylindrical image carrier in which the printing area is below the non-printing area, using liquid inks which dry through evaporation. The recesses are filled with ink, and the surplus is cleaned off the non-printing area before the surface to be printed contacts the cylinder and lifts the ink from the recesses.
• Rotary screen printing: A web-fed printing activity in which the ink is passed onto the surface to be printed by forcing it through a porous image carrier, in which the printing area is open and the non-printing area is sealed off, using liquid inks which dry only through evaporation. Web-fed means that the material to be printed is fed to the machine from a reel as distinct from separate sheet
• Varnishing: An activity by which a varnish or an adhesive coating for the purpose of later sealing the packaging material is applied to a flexible material.

Any activity of mixing, milling, blending, calendaring, extrusion and vulcanization of natural or synthetic rubber and any ancillary operations for converting natural or synthetic rubber into a finished product.

Any activity except dry cleaning using organic solvents to remove contamination from the surface of material including degreasing. A cleaning activity consisting of more than one step before or after any other activity shall be considered as one surface cleaning activity. This activity does not refer to the cleaning of the equipment but to the cleaning of the surface of products. It is important to note that EU Directive 1999/13/EC states that substances which because of their content of VOCs are classified as R40, R45, R46, R49, R60, R61 or R68 should be replaced by less harmful substances or preparations within the shortest possible time.

Any activity to extract vegetable oil from seeds and other vegetable matter, the processing of dry residues to produce animal feed, the purification of fats and vegetable oils derived from seeds, vegetable matter and/or animal matter.

Any industrial or commercial coating and /or degreasing activities carried out on new road vehicles (i.e. from the original manufacturing line) and trailers (including semi-trailers). This means that vehicle refinishing carried out as part of vehicle repair, conservation or decoration outside of manufacturing installations is not included within this list and hence does not fall within scope of SL 549.79.

Any coating activity of metallic conductors used for winding the coils in transformers and motors, etc. Solvent is used in several coating processes. Coatings contain 60-70% solvents by weight. Firstly, solvent is used for coating the wire with enamel, essential in enabling the enamel to stick to the wire. Secondly, a wax layer is applied on top of the enamel layer. This latter process uses the greatest proportion of solvents. In general, solvent-relevant process steps include the coating and could be also the lubricating process.

Any activity giving a loading or preservative in timber. The application of the preservative may be carried out via vacuum processes, pressure processes, dipping, spraying or brushing. The application efficiency of the vacuum process, dipping and brushing is close to 90 %. Spraying has a much lower efficiency of around 10 %. The main emission source is given by the solvent content of the applied substances. Three types of preservatives are used: water-based ones, solvent-based ones and creosote.

Any activity to adhere together wood and/or plastic to produce laminated products. Most common solvents used within this industry include hexane, methyl ethyl ketone, toluene, and methylene chloride.