**3. An overview of biomass in Africa**

Bioenergy from biomass is the primary source of energy for more than 2.7 billion people globally and serves a traditional role in Africa [24]. Organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD) [25] highlighted that more than 81% of the population accounting for 653 million Africans rely on biomass for their energy demands and the figure is expected to rise by 2030 to 720 million. The total energy demand in Africa is dominated by biomass that accounts for almost half (about 48%) of the total available sources (**Figure 1a**). A similar trend is evident in the sub-Saharan Africa as shown in **Figure 1b**. With the exclusion of South Africa, the rest of sub-Saharan Africa depends on biomass to a rate of more than

#### **Figure 1.**

*Total biomass energy supply in (a) Africa, (b) sub-Saharan Africa and (c) sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa.*

**99**

the continent.

*The Potential of Biomass in Africa and the Debate on Its Carbon Neutrality*

81%. (**Figure 1c**) Total biomass energy supply for the entire continent is at 28,177 petajoules (PJ) while in sub-Saharan Africa it is 21, 646 and 15,575 PJ including and excluding South Africa, respectively, according to the IEA data of 2009 [18, 26]. Apart from contributing to the primary energy demand in Africa, biomass also contributes significantly to the total final consumption. Although it is expected that this trend is on a reducing trend due to other competing uses of biomass such as animal feeds, organic sources and food, IEA [26] still projects that biomass sources will contribute to 51–57% of energy consumption by 2035 in the continent. In poorer countries of Africa especially those of sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa, the tendency to use biomass for energy is even higher according to Dasappa [27]. Usually the uses are traditional referring to the inappropriate use of animal dung, agricultural residues, animal dung, tree residues and fuel wood for space heating, lighting and cooking. This could be contrasted to modern biomass technical and effective use of energy characterized by high efficiency. Most of poor African population relies on traditional use of biomass for its energy uses despite the unsustainability of these trends, the rarity of quality biomass energy in these areas and the need for food security usually sourced from biomass sources [18]. The traditional uses of biomass via inefficient stoves is associated with indoor air pollution, soil degradation, forest degradation, ample time spent collecting firewood and ultimately, poverty [24]. These challenges necessitate a comprehensive analysis of biomass potential in Africa to find solutions towards having high quality, effective and efficient biomass. The following sections discuss the various biomass types with specific production levels in Africa and thereafter the potential of biomass in

Africa has more than 650 million hectares of forest cover, which accounts for 17% of the world's total area. The area covered is a fifth of the continent though the distribution of this resource is uneven with the Congo Basin and some areas of central and western Africa taking the largest share as shown in **Figure 2**. In the regions, production of wood products and round-wood is a key source of employment and African forests account for 0.85 ha per capita of population according to Dasappa [27]. Approximately 1% of the continent is characterized as forest plantation while the tropical rain forests account to 25% of such areas globally. Due to the lack of recent statistics, this study used the Food and Agriculture Organization [29] data to show the forest product statistics for some African countries as shown in **Table 1**. Summarizes the wooded and forested areas of Africa with statistics showing 645 Mha accounting for 21% of total area as having biomass cover. Regions of central, west, east and South Africa have larger forested and wooded regions compared to the north. This could be because the latter has a considerable

Round-wood is the major forest product at 237 million tons compared to charcoal, fuel wood and industrial products at 15, 52, and 207 million tons, respectively. The ratio of wood fuel to round-wood for some named African countries ranges from 0.9 to 1. In addition to wood, the processing of wood generates residues such as tops, lops, sawdust and cut-offs that are used as biomass. During forest and plant production, residues in the form of leaves, husks, cobs, shells and stalks are pro-

In the use of municipal solid waste biomass in Africa for energy, the section is largely unexploited according to Hafner et al. [30]. This trend is predominant in the continent despite the great potential of valorizing waste biomass to generate renewable and efficient energy in addition to dealing with the current waste disposal crises if conducted in large scale. The UN Environment Program [31] lauds Ethiopia for constructing a waste biomass-to-power plant, which is one of the first in large-scale capacity in the continent. Africa has also taken up the use of energy

share of fossil fuel resources compared to other African regions.

duced and serve as useful biomass too.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93615*

#### *The Potential of Biomass in Africa and the Debate on Its Carbon Neutrality DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93615*

*Biotechnological Applications of Biomass*

Municipal solid waste commonly known as garbage comprises of leather and wood by-products, leaves, clippings from grass, food wastes, cardboard, paper and biogenic material from plants and animals. All these form biomass and can be transformed to energy for heating or steam for electricity generation. This has been done in developed countries such as the USA where in 2018, 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from combusting 29.5 million tons of municipal solid waste was produced by 68 power plants [22]. More than 60% of the combustible waste consisted of biomass materials and accounted for the more than 50% of the generated power [22]. The remaining combustible weight was from non-biomass materials such as plastics. Landfill gas also made from biomass material is transformed to methane gas and used in energy production. In Africa, the use of municipal solid waste for energy production has high potential as Scarlat et al. [23] concluded in an evaluation of its potential especially in urban areas of the continent though it is done at

Bioenergy from biomass is the primary source of energy for more than 2.7 billion people globally and serves a traditional role in Africa [24]. Organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD) [25] highlighted that more than 81% of the population accounting for 653 million Africans rely on biomass for their energy demands and the figure is expected to rise by 2030 to 720 million. The total energy demand in Africa is dominated by biomass that accounts for almost half (about 48%) of the total available sources (**Figure 1a**). A similar trend is evident in the sub-Saharan Africa as shown in **Figure 1b**. With the exclusion of South Africa, the rest of sub-Saharan Africa depends on biomass to a rate of more than

*Total biomass energy supply in (a) Africa, (b) sub-Saharan Africa and (c) sub-Saharan Africa excluding* 

**2.3 Biomass from wastes**

small-scale levels.

**3. An overview of biomass in Africa**

**98**

**Figure 1.**

*South Africa.*

81%. (**Figure 1c**) Total biomass energy supply for the entire continent is at 28,177 petajoules (PJ) while in sub-Saharan Africa it is 21, 646 and 15,575 PJ including and excluding South Africa, respectively, according to the IEA data of 2009 [18, 26].

Apart from contributing to the primary energy demand in Africa, biomass also contributes significantly to the total final consumption. Although it is expected that this trend is on a reducing trend due to other competing uses of biomass such as animal feeds, organic sources and food, IEA [26] still projects that biomass sources will contribute to 51–57% of energy consumption by 2035 in the continent. In poorer countries of Africa especially those of sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa, the tendency to use biomass for energy is even higher according to Dasappa [27]. Usually the uses are traditional referring to the inappropriate use of animal dung, agricultural residues, animal dung, tree residues and fuel wood for space heating, lighting and cooking. This could be contrasted to modern biomass technical and effective use of energy characterized by high efficiency. Most of poor African population relies on traditional use of biomass for its energy uses despite the unsustainability of these trends, the rarity of quality biomass energy in these areas and the need for food security usually sourced from biomass sources [18]. The traditional uses of biomass via inefficient stoves is associated with indoor air pollution, soil degradation, forest degradation, ample time spent collecting firewood and ultimately, poverty [24]. These challenges necessitate a comprehensive analysis of biomass potential in Africa to find solutions towards having high quality, effective and efficient biomass. The following sections discuss the various biomass types with specific production levels in Africa and thereafter the potential of biomass in the continent.

Africa has more than 650 million hectares of forest cover, which accounts for 17% of the world's total area. The area covered is a fifth of the continent though the distribution of this resource is uneven with the Congo Basin and some areas of central and western Africa taking the largest share as shown in **Figure 2**. In the regions, production of wood products and round-wood is a key source of employment and African forests account for 0.85 ha per capita of population according to Dasappa [27]. Approximately 1% of the continent is characterized as forest plantation while the tropical rain forests account to 25% of such areas globally. Due to the lack of recent statistics, this study used the Food and Agriculture Organization [29] data to show the forest product statistics for some African countries as shown in **Table 1**. Summarizes the wooded and forested areas of Africa with statistics showing 645 Mha accounting for 21% of total area as having biomass cover. Regions of central, west, east and South Africa have larger forested and wooded regions compared to the north. This could be because the latter has a considerable share of fossil fuel resources compared to other African regions.

Round-wood is the major forest product at 237 million tons compared to charcoal, fuel wood and industrial products at 15, 52, and 207 million tons, respectively. The ratio of wood fuel to round-wood for some named African countries ranges from 0.9 to 1. In addition to wood, the processing of wood generates residues such as tops, lops, sawdust and cut-offs that are used as biomass. During forest and plant production, residues in the form of leaves, husks, cobs, shells and stalks are produced and serve as useful biomass too.

In the use of municipal solid waste biomass in Africa for energy, the section is largely unexploited according to Hafner et al. [30]. This trend is predominant in the continent despite the great potential of valorizing waste biomass to generate renewable and efficient energy in addition to dealing with the current waste disposal crises if conducted in large scale. The UN Environment Program [31] lauds Ethiopia for constructing a waste biomass-to-power plant, which is one of the first in large-scale capacity in the continent. Africa has also taken up the use of energy

#### **Figure 2.**

*Percentage of forest cover in Africa [28].*


#### **Table 1.**

*Forest and wooded areas in Africa according to the FAO 2005 statistics [27].*

crops for biofuel production. The feedstock for such processes comes from: (1) first generation food crops such as cereals, sugarcane and vegetable oils, (2) from second generation crops such as wood, wastes and bagasse and (3) from third generation organisms such as algae. It is not easy to quantify the use of energy crops due in Africa due to their affiliated competition with food demands especially in famine prone areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Additional challenges including food-fuel competition exacerbated by corruption, weak governance, political instability and competition for land slow down efforts aimed at modernizing biomass for energy in most African countries [30]. IEA [32] expressed optimism that with the appropriate policies, African countries including Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Mozambique could use biofuels to meet energy demands of their respective transport sectors. It is from this optimism that several examples of biomass use in Africa have been documented. These include bioethanol generation from sugarcane

**101**

**Figure 3.**

*The Potential of Biomass in Africa and the Debate on Its Carbon Neutrality*

formalized and are in the implementation stages [36].

in Malawi, jatropha electrification in Mali, the use of sisal waste for biogas production in Tanzania and the production of ethanol from cassava in Benin [33–35]. In Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kenya, Ghana, Gambia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Botswana, policies on the use of bioenergy have been

The potential of biomass in Africa has been examined in a number of studies especially in relation to available land [34, 35, 37]. These studies however focus on productive areas compared to arid and semi-arid regions. In Africa however, most of the area is largely arid of semi-arid characterized by mismanaged natural resources, low productivity and high vulnerability to climate change and soil erosion, which worsens the continent's poverty crises. The potential of biomass is therefore generalized using two aspects: (1) the availability of land and the viable production systems (technical potential) and (2) the expenditure and income resulting from biomass production (economic potential) that vary from humid to arid and semi-arid areas. Ultimately, with these considerations, the economic potential of bioenergy generation is affected. The next section focuses on Africa's

The technical potential of biomass is classified into two: (1) available land for bioenergy production and (2) viable biomass production systems. Available land defines the land left after current high biodiversity, agricultural and unsuitable areas are excluded. In this context, unsuitable areas include steep slopes, deserts and cities while high biodiversity areas include wetlands, forests, biodiversity hotspots and protected areas. In this context, Africa has a great technical potential of biomass as it has ample land for growth of bioenergy crops [27] and has serious electricity supply problems especially in rural areas steered up by poverty and

biomass potential in relation to its technical and economic potential.

*The suitability of growing (a) sugarcane, (b) maize and (c) sorghum in Africa [40].*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93615*

**4. Potential of biomass in Africa**

**4.1 Technical potential**

*The Potential of Biomass in Africa and the Debate on Its Carbon Neutrality DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93615*

in Malawi, jatropha electrification in Mali, the use of sisal waste for biogas production in Tanzania and the production of ethanol from cassava in Benin [33–35]. In Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kenya, Ghana, Gambia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Botswana, policies on the use of bioenergy have been formalized and are in the implementation stages [36].
