Techno-Economic Analysis of Biomass Energy Utilization through Gasification Technology for Sustainable Energy Production and Economic Development in Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria has not been able to provide enough electric power to her about 200 million people. The last effort by the federal government to generate 6000 MW power by the end of 2009 failed. Even with the available less than 6000 MW of electricity generated in the country, only about 40% of the population have access to the electricity from the National Grid, out of which, urban centers have more than 80% accessibility while rural areas, which constitute about 70% of the total population, have less than 20% of accessibility to electricity. This paper addresses the possibility of meeting the energy demand in Nigeria through biomass gasification technology. The techno-economic analysis of biomass energy is demonstrated and the advantages of the biomass gasification technology are presented. Following the technical analysis, Nigeria is projected to have total potential of biomass of about 5.5 EJ in 2020 which has been forecast to increase to about 29.8 EJ by 2050. Based on a planned selling price of $0.727/kWh, the net present value of the project was found to be positive, the cost benefit ratio is greater than 1, and the payback period of the project is 10.14 years. These economic indicators established the economic viability of the project at the given cost. However, economic analysis shows a selling price of $0.727/kWh. Therefore, the capital investment cost, operation and maintenance cost, and fuel cost can be reduced through the development of the gasification system using local materials, purposeful and efficient plantation of biomass for the energy generation, giving out of financial incentives by the government to the investors, and locating the power plant very close to the source of feedstock generation.

Estimation of Electricity Production from Corn Residues: A Case Study of Nigeria

“…The is based on the ability of gasifier systems to produce syngas with low-tar impurities and high calorific value for electricity generation. The technical and economic analyses of biomass gasification for rural power generation in Nigeria has been established by Sobamowo and Ojolo (2018). A typical rural power demand in Nigeria range from 10-100 kW.…”

Construction of a method for the structural functional-cost modeling of a complex hierarchic system

“…Since in addition to the functional load, complex systems must meet the requirements for their economic feasibility, the important part of the stages of operation involving a complex system is the development and use of its functional-cost models, such as in [7]. The purpose of such models is to search for such a variant of the structure of a complex system at whose implementation the specified level of functionality is achieved through the minimum cost.…”

“…The purpose of such models is to search for such a variant of the structure of a complex system at whose implementation the specified level of functionality is achieved through the minimum cost. However, work [7], as well as other ones that we analyzed, focus on the improvement of the highly specialized complex systems [8,9]. Generalizing approaches, directions of their improvement were not considered.…”

Mapping Bioenergy Supply and Demand in Selected Least Developed Countries (LDCs): Exploratory Assessment of Modern Bioenergy’s Contribution to SDG7

“…There are several technologies for energy generation from biomass [19,65,[86][87][88][89], mainly combustion (heat and power plants) and gasification (gasifier coupled with gas or diesel engine). Biomass combustion is a widely used technology for power generation from agricultural residues and biomass co-products [19].…”