Certification · ISCC System Updates

05 August 2021

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

We herewith inform you about updates and clarifications in the ISCC System. Please share this information with all relevant members of staff.

1. New Guidance Document for Wastewater from Ship Transport

In the light of changes to the MARPOL (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships) 73/78 regulation which came into effect in January 2021, ISCC has increasingly received inquiries from the market for the certification of a wastewater stream resulting from cleaning activities of ship containers that have been used for the transport of biogenic oil.

In that context, we are happy to announce that ISCC has developed a comprehensive guidance document for the certification of this wastewater from cleaning activities of ship containers, which shall be referred to as wastewater from ship transport. This guidance document was developed with the active support of various market participants. On this occasion, ISCC would like to thank all parties involved for providing their valuable market insights. The guidance document is published in the public consultation section of the ISCC website and can be downloaded here. ISCC would highly appreciate to receive further stakeholder feedback via the contact form on our website. The public consultation will last for one month, until 05 September 2021.

Please note that the guidance document and the processes described therein can be applied with immediate effect, meaning that the certification of waste/residues from ship transport activities according to this guidance will be possible as of today. Depending on the stakeholder feedback during the public consultation, please take further note that an additional audit may be necessary to verify potentially revised requirements.

2. ISCC EU: Adjustments of Individual GHG Calculation According to RED II

Please note the following remarks on GHG calculations:

  • As economic operators are obligated to comply with the RED II requirements as of 01 July 2021 GHG calculations may have to be updated. Updated calculation must be provided to the CB and will be subject to verification during the next certification audit.
  • The revised ISCC System Document 205 “Greenhouse Gas Emissions” (v4.0) contains an updated list of emissions factors. The update of the emissions factors in individual GHG calculations has to be done during the regular update of the GHG calculation prior to the recertification audit. This means that no immediate update of emissions factors is required.
  • Please note that an error in figure 8 in ISCC Document 205 “Greenhouse Gas Emissions” (v4.0) was corrected. The document with the updated figure can be downloaded here on the ISCC website.

3. Use of Default Values for Transport in Case of Waste/Residues

We hereby clarify that for transport emissions (etd) of waste/residues only the default values for the products and pathways as indicated in the RED II may be used. This means that the disaggregated default value for transport and distribution (etd) for “waste cooking oil biodiesel” cannot be used for any other waste/residue material than used cooking oil.

4. Updates on ISCC Documents

ISCC EU Material List

Table 1 “Raw material” – The following raw materials were added/amended:

  • Black liquor
    (Info: Waste/residue from forest-based industries)
  • Residue of FAME end distillation
    (Info: In FAME production, distillation of the esterified product may be required for the product to meet the EN14214 specification. This feedstock is limited to the residues of that required end distillation.)
  • Straw
    (Added information: Default values can only be applied for “wheat straw ethanol”.)
  • Used cooking oil (UCO) (the addition “entirely or partly of animal origin” was deleted)
    (Amended information: Oil that was used to cook food for human consumption; Waste oil acc. to RED; No differentiation whether UCO is entirely of veg. origin or partly/entirely of animal origin and therefore not eligible in Germany.)
  • Wastewater from ship transport
    (Info: Wastewater generated during the cleaning of ship tanks after transport and unloading of oil of biogenic origin, e.g. vegetable oils.)

ISCC PLUS Material List

Table 1 “Raw material” – The following raw materials were added:

  • Crude Sulphate Turpentine (CTS)
  • Hazelnuts
  • Peaches

Table 2 “Intermediate and final products” – The following products were added:

  • Alpha-methylstyrene (AMS)
  • Amorphous polyolefin polymer (APAO)
  • Aromatic hydrocarbon (C9)
  • Beta pinene
  • BHET (Bis(2-Hydroxyethyl) terephthalate)
  • Butyl acrylate
  • C4 oligomers
  • Carboxylic acid anhydrides
  • Cellulose acetate
  • Copolymers (must be specified and includes ABS, ESBR, NBL, SAN, SBC, SBR, SMMA, SSBR)
  • Cumene
  • Diamines
  • Dimethylaminoethanol
  • Dissolving pulp
  • Ethyl acrylate
  • Feed/Food protein concentrate
  • Foils/Films (now the type of polymer must be specified)
  • Glycol ethers
  • Heavy alkylbenzene (HAB)
  • Hydrogen
  • Hydrogenated aliphatic hydrocarbon resin
  • Isopropyl alcohol (IPA)
  • Laurolactam
  • Methyl acrylate
  • Parrafin wax
  • PE wax
  • PETG
  • Plastic components/parts/products (type of polymer must be specified)
  • Polyacrylamide (PAM)
  • Polyacrylate (specification of polyacrylate type)
  • Polybutene (PB)
  • Polyethers (specification of polyether)
  • Polyols (now the type of polyol must be specified)
  • Polyurethane (PU)
  • Pyrolysis ash
  • Raffinate 2/C4R2 (C4 without butadiene and isobutylene)
  • Sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES)
  • Thermoplastic elastomer (TPE)
  • Xylenes (specification of xylene

In addition, in both material lists, the process to distinguish between genuine waste or processing residues and (non-waste) products was updated to be in line with ISCC EU System Document 202-5 “Waste and Residues” (v4.0).

Please note that both ISCC lists of materials can be amended. In case a material should be certified which is not listed yet, please note that ISCC must be contacted prior to the issuance of the certificate via info@iscc-system.org.

The current versions of the ISCC EU lists of materials (as of 05 August 2021) and the ISCC PLUS lists of materials (as of 05 August 2021) are available here in the client section of the ISCC website (login required).

close