Waste from Biomass – Energy

Potential in Dambovita County

Targoviste, 7th June 2011

Nicoleta Ion

Romania joined the EU on January 1, 2007.

The accession requirements for environmental regulations for waste management included that by 2015, in steps, 150 municipal landfills and 1,500 illegal dump sites must be closed, and 30 national integrated solid waste management systems must be established.

The EU legislation and standards for waste management have been transposed into national legislation, with some transition periods for full compliance: •2017 for municipal landfills; •2009 for illegal dump sites and temporary storage of hazardous industrial waste; •d 2013 for non-hazardous industrial waste.

In 2005, Romanian generated about 8.0 million tons of municipal waste (around 450 kg/person): most was dumped in 234 non-conforming municipal landfills and 2,700 illegal dump sites;

none of it was incinerated

less than 2.0 percent was recycled.

Institutional arrangements

Romania relies on agencies at three levels to manage waste:

1. the Ministry of Environment (MoE) and Ministry of Administration and Interior (MAI);

2. the County Councils; 3. municipalities, which must ensure that all non-

complying landfills and illegal dumps are closed, existing municipal landfills rehabilitated or extended, and new landfills constructed where needed.

Source: National Waste Management Strategy - Ministry of Environment and Water Management

National Waste Management Strategy

General Strategic Objectives for Waste Management8. Valorising the useful potential in wastes8.2. Developing materials and energy recovery activities8.2.2.Promoting energy recovery in highly energy-efficient installations

Eight Regional Environmental Protection Agencies (regional EPAs) prepare Regional Plans for Waste Management; County Councils prepare county-level Waste Management plans.

Solid waste management services may be carried out by municipalities,

private operators, or public private partnerships.

Local authorities are legally mandated to organize waste collection and transportation, which can be carried out by a single sanitary company in small towns, or several companies in larger cities. In most rural areas, however, service delivery is mostly inadequate unless near an urban center.

BIOMASS ENERGY POTENTIALIt is considered that Romania has a good biomass energy potential, evaluated

at about 7 594 thousand toe per year (318x109 MJ per year)

Energy PotentialThousand toe per

YearPJ per Year

Waste from forestry exploitations and firewood

1 175 49.8

Wood waste - sawdust or other wood waste

487 20.4

Agricultural wastes resulting from cereal, corn stems, grapevine waste, etc.

4 799 200.9

Biogas 588 24.6

Urban household waste 545 22.8

REFUEL Dedicated crops –arable 650 PJDedicated crops- pasture 200 PJWood 200 PJAgricultural residues 150 PJTotal about 1200 PJ/y

Biomass distribution

• Firewood (66%) and wood waste (66%): Carpathians and Sub-Carpathians

• Agricultural waste (58%): South Plain and Moldavia

• Biogas (52%): South and Western Plains

Source: ARCE

• Primary energy production from solid biomass amounted in 2008 157 PJ and 135 PJ in 2009

• Primary energy production from solid biomass in toe/inhabitant in Romania is an average value within in the EU

Source: EURObserv’ER 2010.

Source: EURObserv’ER 2010Figure. 3. Primary energy production from solid biomass in the EU, in 2009

Electricity from biomass: The biomass consumption for electricity production in power plants is negligible. Heat from biomass: Most heat is produced in residential stoves. Also a part is produced from solid biomass in boilers for district heating. The industry uses another 11…15 PJ..

There is no international biomass trade market in Romania yet. Romania is importing mainly fossil fuels – crude oil or natural gas.

Forest area covers in Romania 6300 thou ha (2007) which is about 28.0% of total country land. Sixty-six percent of the forests are found in the mountains (30% of the country), 24% in the hilly regions (37% of the country) and 10% on the plains (33% of the country)

• Located in the south of the Southern Carpathians ,Dambovita County (DB) has an area of 4054 km2 which makes it as one of the smallest counties in Romania, representing 1.7% from the whole country area. With a population of about 540000, it is one of the most densely populated counties in Romania

-A share of 61% of the total area of Dambovita county is agricultural area, and 29.8% is forest or forestry vegetation.

-From the total agricultural area, arable land is 70.1%, 17.7% pastures, 8.2% hayfields and 4% orchards and vineyards.

- the crops cultivated in DB are: cereals, potatoes and vegetables.

The most share of energy in the Dambovita County is based on energy production from coal (SC TERMOELECTRICA DOICESTI), energy production by cogeneration (SC TERMICA SA) and energy production from hydro sources (micro hydropower plants in Dobresti and Scropoasa)

Land area by usage (ha)

Source: National institute of Statistics

Source: Statistical Yearbook of DB County 2010

Cut wood volume harvested (thou mc)

Source: National institute of Statistics

Cuttings can be:

1. successive cuttings representing the trees extraction in 2-4 stages spread over time and space, by means of which the old stand is gradually harvested;

2. progressive cuttings representing the not uniform trees extraction only from certain areas;

3. gardening cuttings representing the selectively extraction of certain size trees in order to have a forest structure with trees of all ages, for ensuring the continuity of the production process;

4. plane cuttings representing those tree extractions that lead to the cutting of all trees on certain areas

Agricultural residuesAgricultural residues resulting from the harvest are used mainly in farms and animal feeding.

The vegetable waste gathering is costly but a compulsory step in order to prepare the land for the next harvest.

They are not used yet in briquettes manufacturing.

Lacking economical efficiency, the cleaning of fields of vegetable residues is often made by setting them on fire with negative results for air and soil quality (because of destroying the organic matter of soil and micro-fauna).

The energy potential is assessed with the following assumptions:

• the agricultural waste is calculated as a quota from the main product (grains, grapes etc) weight;

• it is accepted that 30% to 60% of the overall-quantities of waste can be used for energy purposes;

• the calorific value is specific to each category of resource.

Energy crops

In Romania there is a significant available land to dedicate to energy crops, producing raw material for power and heat technologies or for transport.

Today in Romania there are energy corps practically only for obtaining biofuels, and not for power or heating purposes.

Only about 50% of the arable land in Romania is currently used for food production. Less than eight percent of the arable land in Romania is needed to fulfill the task imposed by the EU Biofuels Directive – 10 % in 2020.

Source: Statistical Yearbook of DB County 2010

Total harvested area – Oleaginous (sunflower, rape, soya beans), thousands ha

Area cultivated with rape and sunflower, 2006

Source: MADR

RESOURCES FOR BIOGAS PRODUCTION BY ANAEROBIC DIGESTION

Wet droppings quantity on animal category

Animal category Dropings quantity, on each 1000 kg alive animal and day

Total solid droppings, [%]

Milk caw 86 0,14

Fatten calf 62 0,08

Pig 84 0,13

Given these considerations, and taking into account the livestock in Romania, the available droppings estimated at country level are presented in table bellow, as indicated by ICIA (– Research Institute for Analytical Instrumentation)

Droppings of the animal husbandry

Wet substance –energy potential, [PJ/year]

Dry substance-energy potential, [PJ/year]

2006 2010 2020 2006 2010 2020

12 13 14 5.5 6 6.4

The most recent assessment of biogas potential (2008) was carried out within the ProBioPol project. This study assessed the waste/sludge/by-products flow from agriculture, food industry, waste water treatment, municipal waste and other sources (e.g. paper industry and biodiesel plants). The biogas potential from animal farms is more optimistic (63 PJ/year versus 17 PJ/year).

LIVESTOCK

2004 2005 2006Cattle 79914 81826 83210

Pigs 155884 152352 167336

Sheep 47361 47920 47702

Goats 12356 12142 12854

Horses 20486 20465 19183

Poultry 2871393 2770636 2858982 Source: Statistical Yearbook of DB County 2010

ENER-SUPPLY Project

Energy Efficiency and Renewables- Supporting Policies

In Local Level for Energy

www.ener-supply.eu

•Financed within the Transnational Co-operation Programme South East Europe (http://www.southeast-europe.net/en/ )

•Coordinated by the Municipality of Potenza (IT)

• Implemented at local level. In Romania – 2 counties: DAMBOVITA and IALOMITA

•One of the most important objectives of the project is to evaluate the renewables (among them biomass) energy potential in territories selected and to draw maps.

•The technical partner for biomass potential assessment is the University of Ancona

Thank you for your attention!Thank you for your attention!

Contact:Contact:

nicoleta.ion@enero.ro

Tel/fax: +4021 6652605Tel/fax: +4021 6652605