Reduced pollution from petrol stations

New legislation will require service stations in the EU to be equipped with petrol vapour recovery, resulting in improved protection of the environment and public health. On 5 May the European Parliament confirmed a first-reading agreement with the Council on new EU legislation demanding that as of 1 January 2012 petrol vapour recovery devices will become compulsory at all new or renovated service stations with a throughput of more than 500 cubic metres of petrol per year.

All existing large service stations (i.e. with a throughput of more than 3000 cubic metres) will be obliged to install this technology by 2018, two years earlier than proposed by the Commission, but three years later than proposed by the Parliament’s rapporteur, Dimitrios Papadimoulis (see AN 1/09, p. 3).
  Under the deal, vapour recovery systems would require a capture efficiency of at least 85 per cent. By comparison, Mr Papadimoulis wanted a minimum capture efficiency of 95 per cent, and the Parliament’s Environment Committee at a vote on 31 March agreed to try to raise the level of ambition by increasing the minimum capture efficiency to 90 per cent. However, in order to find a first-reading compromise, the Parliament accepted the original proposal by the Commission for a capture efficiency of 85 per cent.
   By 31 December 2014 the Commission has to review the implementation of this new directive and report the results of the review to the Parliament and to the Council, accompanied if appropriate by a legislative proposal.

Christer Ågren