*Opportunities and Challenges of Harnessing Biomass Wastes for Decentralized Heat… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112533*

consumption for space heating and 64% for hot water comes from fossil fuels, and biomass share is about 12% [76]. Waste biomass for heating can fit here well to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. Once commercial, biomass gasification can be a cuttingedge technology for distributed energy generation. This in turn contributes to local income opportunities and green and sustainable development. Developing the local economy by adding value to local resources and reducing dependency on imported sources of energy access in many sustainable development schemes [3].

Biofuels are garnering attention as a promising renewable energy source and a business opportunity for rural communities by cutting fossil fuel demand and reducing greenhouse gas emissions [77]. Affordability, reliability, and sustainability of energy production in rural areas can be guaranteed by decentralized, small-scale systems owned by the local community [1].

As an interesting approach for biomass energy conversion, fluidized bed gasification technology has attractive features for distributed heat and power applications such as [3, 78]:

