Definition Guidelines of Water Reuse, Recycling and Reclamation for European Refinery Sector

Report no. 4/22: The current Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference document (BREF) for the mineral oil refining sector (REF BREF) contains requirements such as reducing water consumption by water recycling and internal water reuse. However, the terms water reuse, water recycle, and water reclamation are not defined in the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) and associated reference documents. This report reviews the main literature and provides an overview of current definitions of water reuse, recycle and reclamation used by industry, reporting organisations and international institutions. The literature review has shown that there are no consistent definitions of the terms.

The report provides recommended definitions of the terms water reuse, water recycle and water reclamation, based on technical evidenced encountered during the literature review and industry sources. It also provides guidelines on which refinery processes can be considered water reused, recycled and reclaimed, to facilitate future technical discussions and to allow Concawe members, and others, to report water reused, water recycled, and water reclaimed in a more consistent way.