An Assessment of Potential Resources for Biomass Energy in Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria is a developing country with an insufficient supply of energy to meet the continuously growing demand. However, there are several biomass resources available within the country. This paper presents a desk review, which investigates the potential resources for biomass energy generation within the country. Energy policies to aid biomass use as an energy source within the country were also reviewed. Biomass resources identified within Nigeria include forest residues, agricultural residues, human and animal wastes, aquatic biomass, and energy crops. However, several of the resources, particularly agricultural residues, have competing uses, such as livestock feed and soil rejuvenation. An estimation of the technical energy potential of the biomass resources revealed that about 2.33 EJ could be generated from the available resources in Nigeria. Agricultural residues have an energy potential of about 1.09 EJ, with cassava, maize, oil palm, plantain, rice, and sorghum being the major contributors. Animal wastes, municipal solid waste, and forest residues have energy potentials of 0.65, 0.11, and 0.05 EJ, respectively. The potentials of wood fuel and charcoal are 0.38 and 0.05 EJ, respectively. The study found that despite the available potential and existing policies, not much has been done in the implementation of large-scale bioenergy within the country. However, there has been laboratory and research-scale investigations. The review suggests that more policies and stronger enforcement will aid bioenergy development within the country. From the review, it has been suggested that the agricultural sector needs to be developed to generate more biomass resources. More research, development, and implementation have to be carried out on biomass resources and bioenergy generation processes. The production of non-edible energy crops in marginal lands should also be considered prime to the development of bioenergy within the country.

Community Empowerment and Utilization of Renewable Energy: Entrepreneurial Perspective for Community Resilience Based on Sustainable Management of Slum Settlements in Makassar City, Indonesia

“…Community empowerment will be successful if it is implemented through four basic principles, among others: (1) building equality, namely the equal position between the community and the institutions that carry out community socio-economic empowerment programs; (2) community participation, namely programs that are implemented will be able to stimulate community independence; (3) building independence, namely respecting and prioritizing community capabilities rather than assistance from other parties; and (4) sustainable, namely the socio-economic empowerment program will provide a dominant role for the community to build sustainable independence. Thus, the role of government is oriented toward building community organizations independently and voluntarily toward sustainable community development [34,35].…”

Saccharification and Fermentation of Cellulolytic Agricultural Biomass to Bioethanol using Locally Isolated Aspergillus niger S48 and Kluyveromyces sp. Y2, respectively

“…There has been acute shortage of energy supply in these countries including Nigeria. However, with the abundance of plant biomass that if properly utilized can be used to produce bioethanol as an alternative renewable energy source in place of dwindling fossil fuel [2].…”

“…This is one of the reasons why the attention of researchers shifted to lignocellulosic plant biomass for bioethanol production. Biomass occurs in nature with complex structures that are renewable [2].…”

Energy Use of Mediterranean Forest Biomass in Sustainable Public Heating Systems and its Effects on Climate Change – Case of Study

“…This has accelerated the degradation of forest ecosystems, leading to further depopulation of rural areas (Preiss et al 1997) and the abandonment of farms, jeopardizing the economic stability of the region (Martinho 2019) and consequently endangering social and ecological stability (Varga 2020). At first view it seems obvious that the energetic use of biomass coming from sustainable forestry works (Kyriakopoulos 2010) encourages the survival of forests (Giménez 2018), reduces the effects on climate change, prevents forest fires (Regos et al 2016), reduces traditional energy consumption (Streimikiene et al 2020) and helps socio-economic development in agroforestry regions (Jekayinfa et al 2020).…”