ASSESSMENT OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IN ROMANIA - CASE STUDY FOR RAPE CROP

Use of renewable energy resources is regulated by EU Directive 2009/28/CE from April 23rd 2009. The reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions coming from the biofuels and bioliquids use is calculated according to the Article 19 of the Directive and is based on typical and default values. In this study the coefficients for rape crop (typical emissions of greenhouse gas -g CO2 ech MJ(-1)) were evaluated at NUTS3 level (county) taking into account the pedoclimatic and technological conditions of Romania. The evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions and of energy consumptions within the whole production chain of biodiesel was done by using three different computing programs: Greenhouse Gas Calculator - version 2.1b/2008; Greenhouse Gas Calculator for bioethanol and biodiesel designed in 2005 by Environmental Policy Center of Imperial College from London and adapted to the Directive requirements in 2009; Carbon Calculator - version 1.1 designed by E4Tech for Renewable Fuels Agency from UK. These programs were used for different crop production levels: multiannual national average for the period of 1991-2011 provided by National Institute of Statistics; the lower level of crop production defined as difference between multiannual average and standard deviation of crop production years; the upper level of the crop production defined as sum between multiannual average and standard deviation of crop production years; crop production for which the default values of crop coefficients are given in Annex V/part D. The aggregation of information on greenhouse gas emissions (g CO2 ech MJ(-1)) at NUTS3 level corresponding to the fourth levels of crop production was done as an average of emissions from each soil-terrain unit under arable land use. The results obtained using three computing programs showed that the dependence between greenhouse gas emissions specific to rape crop (g CO2 ech MJ(-1)) and crop yield (t ha(-1)) are similar. The E4Tech model was then used for evaluation of spatial distribution of emissions. It was used the dependence between typical greenhouse gas emissions specific to rape crop and crop yield (optimum technology: multiannual average, multiannual average +/- standard deviation; actual technology: multiannual average). The aggregation of these results at NUTS3 level showed that in the case of optimum technology most of the counties with arable land use have average values ranging within the default values for typical emissions included in the Directive. In case of actual technology, the average counties values of greenhouse gas emissions for the entire production cycle of biodiesel obtained from rape (based on the average production of rape at national level for the 1991-2011 period) are much higher than the typical and default values given in Annex V/part A of the Directive. In case of crop production obtained in favorable years (average production + standard deviation) and in optimum technology the average values are regularly lower than typical and default values from the Directive. In case of non-favorable years (average production - standard deviation) and in optimum technology all counties have average values of greenhouse gas emissions higher than typical and default values from Directive.