Biomass: Two Birds with One Stone?

Curbing the environmental impacts of climate change is critical. To ensure a sustainable planet for future generations, curating national climate mitigation efforts to address several socio-economic challenges, such as limited energy access and poor waste management, is imperative.

Using Biomass to Generate Energy: The Mechanics

Biomass energy is the conversion of waste or plant residuals into more valuable products to generate renewable energy and capture greenhouse gases emitted. This process can also be known as waste valorization. Recycling residual matter combats the release of new carbon because it maintains a close loop. The carbon from biomass is reabsorbed by regrown trees through photosynthesis, unlike fossil fuels that release new carbon into the atmosphere. Amongst the numerous derivatives of biomass, ethanol – a biofuel- is a primary product which can be used as liquid fuels for cooking, pharmaceutical-grade chemical, biodegradable plastics and electricity generation from sugarcane bagasse.

In 2021, the Energy Commission of Nigeria unveiled its report on assessing Biofuel and Bio-energy potentials in Nigeria’s Sugar industry. The former Director-General of the ECN highlighted that the detailed biomass resource assessment would identify potential sites for biomass mini-grids throughout the Federation. Although, the communication on the project’s development has been silent since its announcement. Before this announcement, Nigeria launched the National Biofuel Policy and Incentives in 2007, which was to be coordinated by the Ministry of Petroleum and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Nonetheless, the Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, of the NNPC Limited – through a representative – also acknowledged the ‘self-sufficient’ process of sugarcane utilization for energy generation.

Why Sugarcane and Cassava?

Sugarcane and cassava are abundant in Nigeria. Converting the biomass waste from their respective produce, bridges the electricity gaps and acts as an asset to alter the poor management of urban and industrial wastes, which is a severe public health issue. Nigeria is a festering ground to landfills and is home to six dump sites in Africa, notably Olusosun. On average, a poor waste management site in Nigeria emits about 491,000 tonnes of methane annually. This is notable because, although CO2 emissions are more significant in the atmosphere than methane, CH4 emissions are 25 times more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The increased potency of methane scales the warming power of carbon dioxide in the near term, which is incompatible with Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and energy transition goals.

However, biofuel adoption has been criticized for two main reasons, poor return on investments (ROIs) and the energy vs. food crisis. On poor ROIs, biofuels in developed countries have recorded low-profit margins because of high startup costs and extended timelines to recoup ROIs. Also, it has been commonly accepted that the cultivation of sugarcane and cassava for biofuel will incentivize farmers to sacrifice other food crops for biofuel, increasing food prices. These consequences are indeed plausible, but an implementable regulatory policy and institutional framework for biomass will resolve these challenges. For example, tax credits for biofuel producers can level market competition with petroleum products to achieve cost parity. In addition, mandating the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to reflect the Waste-to-Energy framework in grid assessments and tariffs in line with the National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy (NREEEP) which targets 16% renewable energy to the grid by 2030.

Biomass is a form of renewable energy that the NNPCL has heralded as an economically viable pathway for electricity generation. Its adoption offers an opportunity for methane reduction in Nigeria’s climate fight and opens an avenue for the nation to have an effective waste management system.