The Medium Combustion Plant Directive (MCPD) is a piece of EU
legislation which has been adopted in the UK to limit the emissions
of certain pollutants from medium combustion plants, with the
purpose of improving air quality.
Under the MCPD, all combustion plant between 1 and 50MW will
have to register or have a permit. Any plant below 1MW
in size is below the scope of the regulations. The MCPD
is, in part, a direct response to the rise in the number of
biomass-fired boiler systems and CHP plants being installed across
the EU, and to the need to clean up air pollution from other forms
of combustion.
From 20 December 2018, all new plant will need to be registered
or have obtained a permit and comply with Emission Limit Values
(ELVs). The ELVs to be applied are dependent on plant,
fuel type and size. Existing plant must be registered or
have obtained a permit and comply as follows :
|
Size
|
Register/Permit
|
Comply with ELVs
|
|
5-50MW
|
1 January 2024
|
1 January 2025
|
|
1-5MW
|
1 January 2029
|
1 January 2030
|
The limit for emissions for existing biomass-fired medium
combustion plants with a rated thermal input of between 1MW and 5MW
will be 50mg/Nm3for dust and 650mg/Nm3for NOx, while for new plants
(i.e. those installed after 20 December 2018) will be 20 mg/Nm3for
dust and 300 mg/Nm3for NOx.
These new regulations are considerably tighter than those in
place for boilers installed under the RHI, and will require new
boilers to meet a particulates standard which is around a third of
the current RHI emissions limit, and a NOxstandard
which is around two thirds of the current limit.