Renewable Energy from Biomass and Biofuels: Opportunities and Challenges in Nigeria

Abstract

Bioenergy production from renewable sources such as biomass and biofuels is now an attractive option of generating energy for most industrialised nations. Biomass in particular is rapidly becoming accepted as a major contributor to renewable energy targets for energy and chemicals productions. The properties of the bio-oil obtainable from biomass are largely determined by the composition of main building blocks of the biomass. These properties are significant to the adoption of bio-oil over the conventional fossil derived hydrocarbon fuel oils. This work looks at the available thermal processing technologies and considers the unique advantages of pyrolysis as a particular thermal conversion process for biomass energy recovery. The utilization of dedicated energy crops and agricultural residues for producing biofuels and bio-oil in a range of energy conversion technology is explored. The costs and benefits of biomass production and the use of biomass as renewable energy resources in developing countries are also discussed.