Understanding filtration › Appendices

APPENDIX B

Standards and regulations

A filtration station sits at the crossroads of several sets of regulations: classified installations, water discharges, waste, occupational safety and, in the food industry, contact with foodstuffs. This appendix gives pointers on which texts to look at and where to find them.

Nicolas Ract · 9 min read · October 2026

Where to find the texts

Légifrance publishes the official texts. For industrial environmental matters, the AIDA website, published by Ineris (the French national institute for industrial environment and risks) for the ministry in charge of the environment, brings together national and European texts, the nomenclature of classified installations, waste codification and guides; it states itself that its content is for information and does not replace the official publications [1].

Classified installations (ICPE)

The regime of installations classées pour la protection de l'environnement – ICPE (French regulation on classified installations for environmental protection) is laid down in the Code de l'environnement (French Environmental Code, Book V, Title I). An installation is classified according to a nomenclature of headings (rubriques); the nomenclature brochure published by the Direction générale de la prévention des risques – DGPR (French directorate-general for risk prevention) (version 58, June 2026) describes its structure [2]:

• 1xxx: substances; 2xxx: activities (for example 27xx for waste);
• 3xxx: activities covered by the European Industrial Emissions Directive (IED, 2010/75/EU);
• 4xxx: substances and mixtures covered by the Seveso Directive (2012/18/EU).

Each heading refers to a regime: authorisation (A), registration (E), declaration (D) or declaration with periodic inspection (DC), and, where applicable, to a ministerial order of general requirements [2]. Headings that often concern filtration include, for example, surface treatment (2565), waste treatment (2790, 2791) or mixed wastewater treatment plants (2752) [2].

For a site subject to authorisation, it is the arrêté préfectoral d'autorisation (prefectoral authorisation order) that sets, in practice, the discharge limit values, the monitoring and the waste management.

Aqueous discharges

The reference text for installations subject to authorisation remains the arrêté du 2 février 1998 (ministerial order of 2 February 1998) on water abstraction and consumption and on emissions of all kinds from classified installations subject to authorisation. It is still in force, but it has been amended many times, notably by orders of 28 February 2022 and 7 July 2023 [3] [4].

According to a presentation by DREAL Pays de la Loire (regional environment directorate, October 2023), these amendments notably [4]:

• removed the rule that no instantaneous result could exceed twice the limit value, self-monitoring now having to rely on representative samples;
• required operators who abstract from and discharge into the same water body to demonstrate that their discharge is compatible with the receiving environment;
• restated that limit values derived from the conclusions on best available techniques (BREF) take precedence over those of the order.

Sector-specific orders supplement or replace these requirements for certain activities. For a filter press, the filtrate is often the effluent concerned: its clarity directly determines whether the site complies with its limit values for suspended solids.

Sludge and waste

A waste is “any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard”; it is hazardous if it has at least one of the fifteen hazardous properties defined at European level, and each waste is given a six-digit code from the European List of Waste, with an asterisk for hazardous waste [5]. For waste from economic activities, the original producer is responsible for its management [5].

The filter cake in principle falls under this regime: its code, whether or not it is hazardous, and its outlet (recovery, land spreading, landfill, incineration) are determined case by case. The Code de l'environnement also provides for by-product and end-of-waste status, under strict conditions.

Land spreading

For installations subject to authorisation, the order of 2 February 1998 regulates the land spreading of effluents and sludge: it defines it (Article 36) and makes it subject to a preliminary study included in the impact assessment (Article 38), according to a methodological guide by the Agence de l'eau Artois-Picardie (Artois-Picardie water agency) and its partners (2017 edition) [6]. Sludge from urban wastewater treatment plants falls under a different framework, including the amended arrêté du 8 janvier 1998 (order of 8 January 1998), cited by the same guide [6]. These texts may have changed since: check the version in force.

Equipment safety

• Machinery: a filter press is a machine. Directive 2006/42/EC will be replaced by Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 of 14 June 2023, applicable from 20 January 2027 [7]. These texts are aimed first at manufacturers; the operator, for its part, applies the rules of the Code du travail (French Labour Code) on the use of work equipment.
• Pressure equipment: Directive 2014/68/EU covers equipment whose maximum allowable pressure exceeds 0.5 bar [8]. Depending on the design of the installation, certain components (air receivers, squeezing circuits) may be concerned; the manufacturer should be able to say so.
• Maintenance work: lockout (consignation) and a prevention plan with outside contractors (see chapter 6.1).

Food contact

In a brewery, a sugar factory or any filtration of foodstuffs, the filter cloth is a food contact material. The framework, as summarised by the Direction générale des entreprises (French directorate-general for enterprise) [9]:

• Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, the framework text for all materials and articles intended to come into contact with food;
• Regulation (EC) No 2023/2006 on good manufacturing practice for these materials;
• Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 for plastic materials and articles;
• in France, the amended décret n° 2007-766 du 10 mai 2007 (decree of 10 May 2007) and ministerial orders for materials without specific European rules; where there is no harmonised text, mutual recognition applies.

In practice, ask the cloth supplier for a declaration of conformity stating the texts it is based on and the conditions of use covered (temperature, contact time, type of foodstuff), and check that it also covers the sewing threads and coatings.

Useful technical standards