Biomass resources and bioenergy potentials in Nigeria

Energy is crucial to the wellness of humans and to a country's economic development. Unfortunately, Nigeria is challenged with low availability of electricity in rural areas and with frequent power outages and unreliability in the urban centers. Energy from biomass can potentially be an alternative approach to solving the country's electricity problem. Our estimation shows that Nigeria is capable of producing 2.01 EJ (47.97 MTOE) of energy from the 168.49 million tonnes of agricultural residues and wastes that can potentially be generated in a year. Converting the huge quantities of biomass resources to electricity will increase the energy supply, energy mix and balance of Nigeria. This paper reviewed the biomass resources available in Nigeria and the potential of generating electricity from them. It also evaluated various biomass energy conversion technologies and the application of these technologies to developing countries such as Nigeria. The benefits, challenges and research gaps in bioenergy utilization were also explored. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]