The Pollution Prevention and Control (Industrial Emissions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2013

CHAPTER 2 PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING OF METALS

SECTION 2.1 FERROUS METALS

Part A

(a) Roasting or sintering metal ore, including sulphide ore, or any mixture of iron ore with or without other materials.

(b) Producing, melting or refining iron or steel or any ferrous alloy, including continuous casting, except where the only furnaces used are—

(i) electric arc furnaces with a designed holding capacity of less than 7 tonnes; or

(ii) cupola, crucible, reverbatory, rotary, induction, vacuum, electro-slag or resistance furnaces.

(c) Processing ferrous metals and their alloys by using hot-rolling mills with a production capacity of more than 20 tonnes of crude steel per hour.

(d) Loading, unloading or otherwise handling or storing more than 500,000 tonnes in total, in any period of 12 months of iron ore, except in the course of mining operations, or burnt pyrites.

(e) Producing pig iron or steel, including continuous casting, in a plant with a production capacity of more than 2.5 tonnes per hour unless falling within paragraph (b).

(f) Operating hammers in a forge, the energy of which is more than 50 kilojoules per hammer, where the calorific power used is more than 20 megawatts.

(g) Applying protective fused metal coatings with an input of more than 2 tonnes of crude steel per hour.

(h) Casting ferrous metal at a foundry with a production capacity of more than 20 tonnes per day.

Part B

(a) Casting iron, steel or any ferrous alloy from deliveries of 50 tonnes or more of molten metal, unless falling within Part A of this section.

Part C

(a) Producing pig iron or steel, including continuous casting, in a plant with a production capacity of 2.5 tonnes or less per hour, unless falling within paragraph (b) of Part A of this section.

(b) Producing, melting or refining iron or steel or any ferrous alloy (other than producing pig iron or steel, including continuous casting) using—

(i) one or more electric arc furnaces, none of which has a designed holding capacity of 7 tonnes or more; or

(ii) a cupola, crucible, reverberatory, rotary, induction, electro-slag or resistance furnace,

unless falling within paragraph (e) or (h) of Part A of this section.

(c) Desulphurising iron, steel or any ferrous alloy.

(d) Heating iron, steel or any ferrous alloy (whether in a furnace or other appliance) to remove grease, oil or any other non-metallic contaminant (including such operations as the removal by heat of plastic or rubber covering from scrap cable) unless—

(i) it is carried out in one or more furnaces or other appliances the primary combustion chambers of which have in aggregate a rated thermal input of less than 0.2 megawatts;

(ii) it does not involve the removal by heat of plastic or rubber covering from scrap cable or of any asbestos contaminant; and

(iii) it is not related to any other activity falling within this Part of this section.

Interpretation of section 2.1

1.  In this section, “ferrous alloy” means an alloy of which iron is the largest constituent, or equal to the largest constituent, by weight, whether or not that alloy also has a non-ferrous metal content greater than any percentage specified in section 2.2.

SECTION 2.2 NON-FERROUS METALS

Part A

(a) Producing non-ferrous metals from ore, concentrates or secondary raw materials by metallurgical, chemical or electrolytic activities.

(b) Melting, including making alloys, of non-ferrous metals, including recovered products and the operation of non-ferrous metal foundries where the plant has a melting capacity of more than 4 tonnes per day for lead or cadmium or 20 tonnes per day for all other metals.

(c) Producing, melting or recovering (whether by chemical means or by electrolysis or by the use of heat) cadmium or mercury or any alloy containing more than 0.05 per cent by weight of either of those metals or, in aggregate, of both.

Part B

(a) Melting, including making alloys, of non-ferrous metals (other than tin or any alloy which in molten form contains 50 per cent or more by weight of tin), including recovered products (refining, foundry casting, etc.) in plant with a melting capacity of 4 tonnes or less per day for lead or cadmium or 20 tonnes or less per day for all other metals and where the designed holding capacity of molten metal is 0.5 tonnes or more (together with any additional refining).

(b) Melting zinc or a zinc alloy in conjunction with a galvanising activity at a rate of 20 tonnes or less per day unless described in Part A of section 2.1.

(c) Melting zinc, aluminium or magnesium or an alloy of one or more of these metals in conjunction with a die-casting activity at a rate of 20 tonnes or less per day.

Part C

(a) Melting, including making alloys, of non-ferrous metals (other than tin or any alloy which in molten form contains 50 per cent or more by weight of tin), including recovered products (refining, foundry casting, etc.) in plant with a melting capacity of 4 tonnes or less per day for lead or cadmium or 20 tonnes or less per day for all other metals and where the designed holding capacity of molten metal is less than 0.5 tonnes (together with any additional refining).

(b) The heating in a furnace or any other appliance of any non-ferrous metal or non-ferrous metal alloy for the purpose of removing grease, oil or any other non-metallic contaminant, including such operations as the removal by heat of plastic or rubber covering from scrap cable, if not related to another activity described in this Part of this section; but an activity does not fall within this paragraph if—

(i) it involves the use of one or more furnaces or other appliances the primary combustion chambers of which have in aggregate a net rated thermal input of less than 0.2 megawatts; and

(ii) it does not involve the removal by heat of plastic or rubber covering from scrap cable or of any asbestos contaminant.

(c) Unless falling within Part A or B of this section, the separation of copper, aluminium, magnesium or zinc from mixed scrap by differential melting.

Interpretation of Part C

1.  In this Part “net rated thermal input” is the rate at which fuel can be burned at the maximum continuous rating of the appliance multiplied by the net calorific value of the fuel and expressed as megawatts thermal.

Interpretation of section 2.2

1.  In this section “non-ferrous metal alloy” means an alloy which is not a ferrous alloy, as defined in section 2.1.

2.  Nothing in paragraph (c) of Part A or in Part B or C of this section shall be taken to refer to the activities of hand soldering, flow soldering or wave soldering.

SECTION 2.3 SURFACE TREATING METALS AND PLASTIC MATERIALS

Part A

(a) Surface treating metals and plastic materials using an electrolytic or chemical process where the aggregated volume of the treatment vats is more than 30m³.

Part B

(b) Any process for the surface treatment of metal which is likely to result in the release into air of any acid-forming oxide of nitrogen and which does not fall within Part A of this section.

Part C

Nil