POTENTIALS OF AGRO-RESIDUAL WASTE AS BIOMASS FEEDSTOCK FOR

SUSTAINABLE AND RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES

INTRODUCTION

Energy requirements globally are on a rapid escalation as technology advances, and so far in a
developing country like ours, Nigeria, we have been limited to the dependence on fossil fuels
and its derivatives. Apart from its adverse effect on our economy, it goes as far as having
negative impacts on our health and environment in general. With the exigent need for the
development of a particular source which can be readily available, renewable, economically
viable and eco-friendly, research has been carried out and so far, the biomass energy source has
still seemed to be the source which fulfills the needed requirements. Biomass in this case has
presented an alternative, attractive and appealing source, for the production of energy resources
mainly in form of biogas and biofuels. There are some interesting potential of biomass when it
comes to energy related issues or using biomass for energy production purpose, it is one of great
interest to know that there is large amount of biomass in a lot of developing countries of the
world that are yet to be tapped and the use of biomass for energy production in developing
countries can help to solve the economic, social and environmental problems are faced by most
developing countries provided the right polices and also related institutional and technological
innovations approach are followed.

The rising level carbon emissions into our environment as well as the effects of continuous use
of non-renewables in terms of its cost, overuse as well as has triggered the need for a look into
the situation by the development of other renewable and non-polluting sources of energy such as
solar, tidal, wind and biomass energy. Although the other forms although are being utilized and
are making their own breakthroughs in their own ways, there is still a problem of availability and
ease of processing and use, so therefore study being carried out somehow pointed to the
possibility that the energy gotten from biomass can be readily abundant due to the availability in
large diverse quantities, the needed raw materials for the production of this energy type.

Biomass simply refers to the naturally occurring materials in the environment such as plants and
plant residues, human and animal waste as well as some types of solid waste which have the
tendency to release energy during their degradation. Biomass contains stored energy because all
living things which are the source of biomass possess various forms of energy, and thus, when
the biomass is passed through various processes designed for it, the energy contained in them are
extracted in form of biogas and biofuels and used as an alternative energy resource.

ENERGY CRISIS
Energy sources and their utilization determine the economic status and growth of developing
countries all over the world. Depleting fossil reserves and injurious effects of fossil fuel burning
on the environment has given rise to the quest for alternative fuels which must be ecofriendly
and renewable. In order to tackle this challenges, switching to low carbon alternatives such as
biomass fuels (biofuels) is essential. This is because, biomass currently offers the only renewable
source of energy that can substitute for petroleum fuels as well as reduce CO2 emissions.
Biomass is described as any naturally organic material obtained from plant and animal tissue
such as agricultural resources, agricultural residues, forest resources, waste including municipal
solid waste, industrial waste, and other wastes, as well as algae which could undergo degradation
through various chemical processes to release stored energy. All petroleum-based fuels can be
replaced by renewable biomass fuels such as bioethanol, bio-diesel, bio-hydrogen, etc., derived
from sugarcane, corn, switch grass, algae, etc. Generally, Biofuels are classified into 4
generations based on the feedstock used for their production. The first, second, third and fourth.
One of the prominent happens to be the second since it happens to be the most available. The
second generation consist of lignocellulosic biomass obtained from agricultural produce and its
equivalent.

AGRO-RESIDUAL WASTE
Initially when the use of biomass was introduced as a source of feedstock for bio-energy
production, energy or starch containing crops such as cassava, sugarcane, maize, sorghum, oil-
palm, soybean etc. The use of these as feedstock has brought up the food fuel debate due to the
fact that it competes with the use of these materials for food and thus continuous use as
bioethanol feedstock truncates adequate food supply causing a precarious increase in the price of
food. It is very common that in situations like these, there is a big setback on the development of
biomass energy in the sense that that people cannot come to accept the fact that some agricultural
materials supposedly meant for food will be used to produce fuel. Thus in order to ensure that
the biomass application to energy does not fall short due to this limitations, alternative measures
have been taken in order to find out and develop other better sources from which the feedstock
can be obtained from. From research carried out in Nigeria, agriculture is one of the areas that
produces enough wastes which have been found suitable due to their composition to be used as
feedstock for energy production biomass. Agro-residual waste is termed as any waste material
obtained from the production and processing of agricultural produce, it forms the major source of
biomass since most of the waste material obtained from the processing of agricultural produce
can be broken down by biodegradation through the various chemical process of biofuel
production. Examples of these include; cocoa pods, sugarcane bagasse, coconut fibre husks,
empty palm fruit bunches, sawdust, trees, brewer’s spent grains, switch grass, straws, stems,
stalks, leaves, husks, shells and peels from cereals like rice, wheat, corn, sorghum and barley,
among others. These materials are abundant, renewable and inexpensive since they are naturally
obtained from various agricultural processes which is very dominant and pronounced in Nigeria.

POTENTIALS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY

All petroleum-based fuels can be replaced by renewable biomass fuels which could be derived
from the agricultural waste. This is very possible and viable because agricultural wastes are
renewable, less costly and abundantly available in nature. Agricultural wastes do not demand
separate land, water, and energy requirements and do not have food value as well. The common
types of biofuels from agricultural wastes are the biogas and bioethanol which are obtained from
the anaerobic digestion of wastes and fermentation of lingocellulosic material respectively.

Anaerobic digestion is breakdown of the materials by the action of biological enzymes on

biodegradable substances. When this occurs, methane gas together with small amounts of carbon
IV oxide and hydrogen sulphide are produced. This gas can further be purified to obtain pure
methane gas which can be used for many purposes such as cooking/heating, electricity
generation or combined heat and power gas (CHP).

Fermentation is used in producing liquid biofuels. The materials mostly used in this process are
agricultural residues for bio methanol and bioethanol, the biomass materials undergo gradual
biodegradation (fermentation) in the presence of some certain catalysts or enzymes such as
sodium hydroxide, alpha amylase, Saccharomyces Cerevisae etc. After a period of time when the
process of fermentation is complete, the liquid biofuel is purified and used to drive cars, generate
electricity and provide heat. The most important processing challenge in the production of
biofuel is pretreatment of the biomass. Lignocellulosic biomass is composed of three main
constituents namely hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose. Pretreatment methods refer to the
solubilization and separation of one or more of these components of biomass to make it
biodegradable. It makes the remaining solid biomass more accessible to further chemical or
biological treatments. It may be said that to solve the technology bottlenecks of the conversion
process, novel science and efficient technology are to be applied, so that biofuel production from
agricultural wastes may be successfully developed and optimized in the near future.

There are many reasons why biomass energy should be highly considered as a replacement for
the fossil fuels some of which include:

 Drastic reduction in the quantity of carbon emissions as well as greenhouse gases, this
will also tackle the problem of climate change.
 Great diversification in the energy sector due to the fact that the sole dependence on
fossil fuels will be eliminated and as such will help solve some economic problems
resulting from the use of fossil fuels such as scarcity of fuel from petroleum products.
 Rural development through employment and increased means of livelihood, since most of
the raw materials for this energy source will come from the rural areas, where there is
more land and more agricultural activities.
 Rise in the level of research and development being carried out in the energy sector in
order to provide new and suitable ways so that the biomass energy will come to stay in
our country, and to also aid productivity, processing methods, safety and effectiveness of
the growing energy source.
THE WAY FORWARD IN NIGERIA
In order to successfully achieve the aim, of establishing a viable biomass energy resource in our
country, certain measures must be taken but first of all, the government as well as people
concerned in the energy sector should be made to understand the implications of the catastrophic
nature of the continuous carbon monoxide emission and the importance of giving biomass
energy development a chance.

Lack of manpower and expertise in the biochemical industry, lack of funding and investment as
well as inadequate policy and government intervention may negatively affect the development of
this area of energy but steps and strategies which can to some extent alleviate these challenges
may be developed by making the populace as well as government to understand the need to
embrace the cleaner energy, so as to help the environment stay pollution free as a result of the
consistent use of petroleum products as well as assisting in providing funds to foster research in
that field to bring development so that ways of harnessing, processing and producing this energy
could be made easier and more accessible to every Nigerian.

CONCLUSIONS
There exist a great opportunities for exploitation of different types of biomass in Nigeria with an
estimated agro-residual biomass available to be exploited annually. The conversion of biomass to
energy will be rewarding, given the large availability of the agricultural activities in the country.
Utilization of bioenergy has not been given serious implementation attention in Nigeria as if the
fossil fuel will be continuing forever. It is important for Nigeria to look inward to see that the
future generations will not be put at disadvantage through the continued exploitation of fossil
resources by exploring alternatives energy sources. Although it has its own problems at the early
stages of development and use, the advantages are far greater than the disadvantages because
there is more to gain and little or virtually nothing to lose. Biomass energy production is more
like recycling because the agricultural waste gotten can, instead of being dumped into rivers and
other waste sites can simply be converted through the processes meant for that purpose while the
residues gotten from these processes can serve as harmless fertilizers in the agricultural sector or
as feedstock for other processing thus attaining a “Zero Waste” standard. Biomass energy has a
large and promising potential in the energy market, if it is developed, it can help give us a hope
for a sustainable, safer and toxic free atmosphere and environment