Potential of Bioenergy in Rural Ghana

Nii Nelson, Jo Darkwa, John Calautit, Mark Worall, Robert Mokaya, Eunice Adjei, Francis Kemausuor and Julius Ahiekpor
Additional contact information
Nii Nelson: Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Jo Darkwa: Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
John Calautit: Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Mark Worall: Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Robert Mokaya: Faculty of Science, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Eunice Adjei: College of Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
Francis Kemausuor: College of Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
Julius Ahiekpor: Chemical Engineering, Kumasi Technical University, Kumasi, Ghana

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Crop residues are common in rural Ghana due to the predominant role agriculture plays in livelihood activities in these communities. In this paper we investigate the prospects of exploiting agricultural crop residues for rural development in Ghana through bioenergy schemes. A theoretical energy potential of 623.84 PJ per year, which is equivalent to 19,781 MW was estimated using crop production data from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and residue-to-product ratios. Ghana has a total installed generation capacity of 4577 MW which is four times less the energy potential of crop residues in the country. Cocoa pod husks were identified as important biomass resources for energy generation as they are currently wasted. To further assess the energy potential of cocoa pod husks, different cocoa pod husks samples were collected across the six cocoa growing regions in Ghana and thermo-chemically characterised using proximate and ultimate analysis. The low levels of nitrogen and sulphur observed, together with the high heating value, suggest that cocoa pod husks and for that matter crop residues are eco-friendly feedstock that can be used to power rural communities in Ghana.

Keywords: biomass; bioenergy; agricultural crop residues; conversion technology; cocoa pod husk; thermochemical analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/1/381/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/1/381/ (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:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:1:p:381-:d:474316

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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