Increasing Access to Electricity: An Assessment of the Energy and Power Generation Potential from Biomass Waste Residues in Tanzania

Zahida Aslam, Hu Li, James Hammerton, Gordon Andrews, Andrew Ross and Jon C. Lovett
Additional contact information
Zahida Aslam: School of Chemical and Process Engineering and Centre for Doctoral Training in Bioenergy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Hu Li: Faculty of Engineering, School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
James Hammerton: Faculty of Engineering, School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Gordon Andrews: Faculty of Engineering, School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Andrew Ross: Faculty of Engineering, School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Jon C. Lovett: School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-22

Abstract: Tanzania has a high rural population, of which many rely on off-grid diesel generators to produce electricity. The focus of this paper is to assess if the waste biomass residues in Tanzania have sufficient energy potential to produce renewable electrical energy for small-scale electricity generation using off-grid diesel generators coupled with anaerobic digestion (AD) and/or gasification. The gaseous fuel produced can then be used to substitute diesel fuel used in small-scale dual fuel diesel gen-sets; thus, providing more affordable electricity whilst reducing dependency on fossil fuels. The biomass waste streams estimated are those arising from agriculture, forestry, livestock, and urban human waste. To answer this question, the energy potentials of each of these biomass waste streams are quantified, followed by further calculations to determine the electricity generation capacity per stream based on overall efficiencies of 10 and 25%. The results show that combined these waste streams have an energy potential of 385 PJ (for the base year of 2018) generated from 26,924 kilotonnes (kt). Collectively, these residues can produce at least 1.2 times the electricity generated nationally in 2018 using AD and gasification coupled with a diesel gen-set engine.

Keywords: biomass; energy potential; electrification; gasification; anaerobic digestion; Tanzania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/6/1793/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/6/1793/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:6:p:1793-:d:522915

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().