Studies regarding the division in Romania of agricultural crops – raw material for biodiesel production

Abstract

According to Directive 2003/30/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding the promotion and use of biofuels for transport, Romania is using biodiesel blended with conventional diesel in amount of 4% from 1 July 2008 and in amount of 5 % from 1 January 2011. The main advantages of biodiesel compared to conventional diesel are linked on one hand, to the environmental protection against pollution and on the other hand the annual regeneration of oil crops that can be raw material for biodiesel. There are large areas in Romania with favorable pedo-climatic conditions for the cultivation of these oil crops, the most important being rapeseed, soybean and sunflower. These species have the advantage that they can be fully mechanized thus reducing costs with labor foce. Also the introduction of varieties with high production efficiency rises the productivity of these species. Given these considerations, the areas for growing the biodiesel production crops gain an increasing proportion within Romania's arable territory.