Agriculture is the biggest source of waste in Romania that could be turned to energy, while households produce the second-largest volume, Iuliean Hornet, CEO at Ecohornet, told a biomass and biogas conference in Bucharest. He said the Eastern European country is losing an overall 100 million tonnes of the material every year, Act Media reported.
Hornet said agriculture can generate three tonnes of pellets per hectare, but that Romania is using only one million tonnes a year, while it has production capacity of two million tonnes.
Iuliean Hornet said the development of technology for generating energy from biomass requires subsidies.
He stressed subsidies are required for the development of technology for generating energy from biomass, from biodegradable parts of products, waste and residues from agriculture, animal farming, forestry and related industries as well as the biodegradable part of industrial and urban waste. He explained initial investment is bigger and more complicated than in the case of petrol or diesel fuel use.
Hornet also suggested to the authorities of Bucharest and city’s thermal energy supplier Radet to use such technology in order to reduce costs imposed on end users and to bring down subsidies.
Ecohornet manufactures heating systems, burners for radiant tubes and pellet-based convectors. In order to prove the efficiency of its system, four years ago the company installed two boilers with 0.26 MW in downtown Bucharest at a 13-story block of flats, using 62.5 tonnes of pellets a year.
