Vegetable oil producer Ulerom Vaslui, owned by businessman Adrian Porumboiu, will begin production of biodiesel in a factory in Vaslui at the end of this year. Ulerom signed a contract with US-based group Greenline Industries, which will construct the biodiesel production facility.
"We had several options to build the biodiesel factory, with offers coming from European companies, too. We selected the American supplier based on price and the lack of polluting factors," stated Viorel Zichil, Ulerom's general manager.
Greeline Industries specialises in designing and building biodiesel factories, but most of its projects were carried out in the United States. The American group has recently built a biodiesel production centre in Germany.
The factory in Vaslui will have a production capacity of 25,000 tonnes a year. "We will begin production at the end of this year," Zichil added.
Earlier this year, businessman Adrian Porumboiu had announced he would invest 18 million euros in building a biodiesel factory in Vaslui.
The raw material will come from about 15,000 hectares cultivated with rape, soy, sunflower and possibly maize.
Porumboiu owns the Racova Group that farms about 40,000 hectares of land in Vaslui County and the nearby areas, and has silos that can store about 300,000 tonnes.
Racova holds several bread, biscuit and wafer factories, three mills, a vegetable oil factory and a milk processing facility. It is also present on the wine market.
The group posted 220 million-dollar turnover last year, and estimates point to at least as much for this year.
Biodiesel is an alternative non-polluting renewable fuel. It is used in diesel engines and can be combined with the diesel oil in various proportions to form a fuel used by vehicles.
According to European regulations, Romania, like all the other countries in Eur
