Romania has the opportunity to develop the production of advanced biofuels and thus become a regional leader in the decarbonization of the transport sector, believes the Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja.

According to a press release from the relevant ministry sent to AGERPRES on Monday, the institution is developing, for the first time in Romania, a new financing instrument, dedicated to investments in the production of advanced biofuels.

„Romania has the opportunity to develop the production of advanced biofuels and thus become a regional leader in the decarbonization of the transport sector. Almost a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are represented by the transport sector, whether we are talking about road, air transport or maritime”, said Burduja in the quoted release.

On October 4, 2024, the European Commission approved the state aid scheme worth 500 million euros, to support investments in the production of advanced biofuels in Romania.

In order to support this investment measure, the Ministry of Energy will request financing from the resources of the Modernization Fund, during the meeting of the Investment Committee in the spring of next year. In this sense, the documentation for the request for financial support is already prepared at the ministry level, which, in a first stage, will be 100 million euros, after which the rest of the amount will be requested, in stages.

The state aid scheme aims to support investments in new capacities for the production of advanced biofuels, such as bioethanol and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), respectively sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), so that these types of biofuels ensure at least 5 % of final energy consumption in the transport sector until 2030.

The estimated total budget of the state aid scheme is approximately 500 million euros, the first call to be launched will have a budget of 100 million euros. The value of the state aid will be a maximum of 45% of the total investment costs, but not more than 45 million euros/bioethanol plant and 91.25 million euros/SAF/HVO plant.

The estimated production capacity of the advanced biofuels facility (tons/year) is at least 50,000 tons of bioethanol and 20,000 and 90,000 tons respectively for the combined SAF and HVO facility.

Eligible applicants under the state aid scheme are entities under public or private law (micro-enterprises, small, medium and large enterprises, including newly established enterprises), legally registered for tax purposes in Romania, at the time of submitting the Financing Application.

In order to decarbonize the transport sector, the best available technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions will be implemented, as well as the substantial transformation of technological processes, including by considering some solutions for capturing and storing carbon and increasing energy efficiency in transport.

AGERPRES