GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS FROM SUNFLOWER CULTIVATION FOR BIOFUELS AND BIODIESEL PRODUCTION

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 sunflower 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 biofuels and biodiesel was done by using Carbon Calculator – version 1.1 designed by E4Tech for Renewable Fuels Agency from UK. This program was used for different crop production levels: multiannual national average for the period of 1991-2014 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 E4Tech model was then used for evaluation of spatial distribution of emissions. It was used the dependence between typical greenhouse gas emissions specific to sunflower 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 the default values for typical emissions included in the Directive are not reached even in case of optimum technology applied in favorable years for sunflower cultivation (average production + standard deviation). The greenhouse gas emissions had the lowest values in Braila, Ialomita and Calarasi counties. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions within the whole chain of biofuels and biodiesel production from sunflower cultivation, which were evaluated based on multiannual national average for the period of 1991-2014 (actual technology) were 35% in favorable years and 11% in unfavorable years. These values are lower than the typical and default values from Annex V/part D from EU Directive.