First sector specific capacity building workshop of the eVOC Serbia project held, for the representatives of the oil and fat production sector and environment inspectors

Within the Project “Further Implementation of EU Regulation on Volatile Organic Compounds – eVOC Serbia”, a workshop entitled “VOC management and obligations of the operators – Vegetable oil and animal fat extraction and vegetable oil refining (Activity 19)” was held. The workshop, intended for the identified representatives of industry in this sector, as well as for the representatives of environment inspection at all levels, was held on Thursday, November 25, 2021, via Zoom platform in a form of a webinar. This is the first sector-specific workshop in a series, intended to present the regulatory framework for the control of volatile organic compounds emissions and their reduction schemes. 

Ms. Ljubica Bolović, representative of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia, greeted the participants on behalf of the Air and Ozone Layer Protection Unit and shared a brief summary of the Ministry’s activities in this field. eVOC Serbia expert, Ms. Elena Janković, then spoke about the legislation and presented in detail the Regulation that pertains to the obligations of VOC operators from this sector in the Republic of Serbia. 

International expert of the eVOC Serbia Project, Dr Richard Schlachta, spoke about the relevant sources of VOC emissions from this sector, as well as on the calculation of solvent mass balances for the activity of vegetable oil and animal fat extraction and vegetable oil refining, i.e., on determination of solvent consumption and checking compliance with emission limit values. After this, the best available techniques for reducing emissions of volatile organic compounds, like solvent recovery and optimization of its use, were presented in detail. Dr Schlachta’s lecture was very useful for operators from this sector, but also for the inspectors, as he had turned the many years of his experience into concrete examples and experiences from the field. 

The invitation of the eVOC Serbia Project was accepted by the representatives of inspections at all levels, from the national and province inspectors to local inspectors, as well as representatives of producers working in this field. 

You can see the agenda and pictures from the Zoom workshop here.