Increasing Access to Electricity: An Assessment of the Energy and Power Generation Potential from Biomass Waste Residues in Tanzania

Abstract

Tanzania has a high rural population, of which many rely on off-grid diesel generators to produce electricity. The focus of this paper is to assess if the waste biomass residues in Tanzania have sufficient energy potential to produce renewable electrical energy for small-scale electricity generation using off-grid diesel generators coupled with anaerobic digestion (AD) and/or gasification. The gaseous fuel produced can then be used to substitute diesel fuel used in small-scale dual fuel diesel gen-sets; thus, providing more affordable electricity whilst reducing dependency on fossil fuels. The biomass waste streams estimated are those arising from agriculture, forestry, livestock, and urban human waste. To answer this question, the energy potentials of each of these biomass waste streams are quantified, followed by further calculations to determine the electricity generation capacity per stream based on overall efficiencies of 10 and 25%. The results show that combined these waste streams have an energy potential of 385 PJ (for the base year of 2018) generated from 26,924 kilotonnes (kt). Collectively, these residues can produce at least 1.2 times the electricity generated nationally in 2018 using AD and gasification coupled with a diesel gen-set engine.