BIOMASS ENERGY AND ITS RELEVANCE FOR ALTERNATIVE ENERGY PROMOTION IN NEPAL

1. Energy and its Linkages

Energy is essential for development and per capita energy consumption is often seen as an indicator of economic status and well being. Nepals per capita energy consumption at 15GJ is one of the lowest in the world and more than 90 percent of the energy is consumed in the residential sector, indicating the low use of the energy economic development related activities. Besides being indicator for economic development, household energy also has multiple linkages with important social issues poverty, gender, environment and health. Generally, poor people tend to use solid biomass used fuels such as fuel wood, animal dung and agricultural residue which causes many environmental and health problems at local as well as global levels. The loss of time and productivity due to environment and health problems associated with solid fuel use further aggravates poverty and the adverse impact is primarily on women as they are often the ones involved in collection and use of fuel at household level. FIGURE 1: Multiple Negative impacts of Inefficient Household Energy use
POVERTY Loss of time Loss of productivity due to poor health and environment HEALTH ARI, COPD, Lung Cancer, TB, birth weight, cataract Burns

low

Household Energy

GENDER Opportunity cost of lost time Increased drudgery of women Injuries and assault during fuel collection

ENVIRONMENT Local: deforestation, erosion, desertification, air pollution Global: green gas emissions

2. Sources of Energy in Nepal The energy source use in households is often linked to socio-economic conditions. People with low income and traditional lifestyle depend more on solid biomass fuels. As peoples income level increases, they tend to climb up the energy ladder and start using relatively cleaner fuels such as kerosene, LPG and electricity. It is estimated that 50 percent of the worlds populations are still at the bottom of this energy ladder as they use solid biomass fuels such as fuel wood, dung and agriculture residues. The situation is worse in Nepal as 85 percent of Nepals population depend on the solid fuels for cooking. Of the total energy consumed in Nepal, it is estimated that about 75percent comes from fuelwood and about 9.5percent comes from agricultural residues and dung, while only about 2 percent come electricity and renewable energy sources.
1.47 3.53 0.48

3.75 5.74

Fuel wood 9.24 Petroleum Anim waste al Agricultural Residue Coal Electricity Renewables 75.79

Source: Economic Survey 2006-07(values given in %)

3. Sources of Biomass Energy Biomass energy is defined as energy from plant and animal origins such as woody biomass (stems, branches, and twigs), non-woody biomass (stalks, leaves, grass), agriculture residue (rice husk, straw), oil seeds, industrial residue (bagasse,
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molasses) and animal and human faces. The main sources of biomass energy that are currently in use in Nepal are fuelwood, cattle dung and agricultural residues. Other potential biomass energy sources in Nepal are oil bearing plants such as Nageshwor or Mesua ferrea (77% oil), and Sajiwan or Jatropha curcass (45-56% oil) which can be used to produce biodiesel, resin from pine trees, which can be used to produce bio-hydrocarbon, molasses from sugar industry that can be used to produce ethanol, and organic waste that can be used to produce briquettes or biogas. However, so far the use of other sources is still very limited mainly because of lack of knowledge on appropriate technologies to efficiently utilize these resources on a large scale. FIGURE 2: Source of Biomass Energy Sources of Biomass Energy

Energy Crops

Agro & Forest Residues

Industrial By-products

Organic Waste

Harvesting, Collection, etc.

Preparation

Transportations

Storage

Thermo-Chemical Conversion

Physical Conversion

Bio-Chemical Conversion

Pyrolysis

Gasification

Pressing

Expelling

Alcohol fermentations Ethanol

An-aerobic digestion Biogas

Charcoal

Producer Gas

Briquette

Liquid biofuel

COMBUSTION

POWER

HEAT

4. Application of biomass energy technology Biomass can be used directly or it can be converted though a variety of processes to produce solid, liquid and gaseous fuels. Direct use of biomass, such as fuelwood , dung or agricultural residue, by drying in the sun and burning it to generate is most simple and common application of biomass. However, this is generally an inefficient use of biomass fuel and it in a lot of smoke which is a health hazard. Efficiency can be improved by using improved cooking stoves. Generally, two criteria: improving fuel combustion (combustion efficiency) and direct more heat into pot (heat transfer efficiency) are used to design stoves that consume less fuel and produce less pollution. High combustion temperatures and good mixing of gases (air and fire) reduces dangerous emission through more complete combustion. Forcing heat to scrape against the pot in small channels dramatically increases heat transfer efficiency, there by reducing the amount fuel used for cooking. In processed form, the original biomass is converted into different forms using different combinations of physical, chemical and biological process. This may result in improved solid fuel such as briquettes, liquid fuels such as ethanol or gaseous fuel such biogas. The following processes can be used to process biomass resources into different forms:

Thermo- chemical conversion- In this process, biomass is burned in the absence of oxygen (pyrolysis) to from char or partially burned in a gasifier to produce a combustible gas. Bio-chemical conversion- This process includes digestion of biomass in aerobic conditions to produces biogas in aerobic or fermentation to produce ethanol. Physical conversion- By applying physical pressure, biomass may be densified, as in the case of briquettes, or expelled to extract oil from plants. The extracted oil may be treated to remove heavy particles.

In context of Nepal, direct use biomass in various types of improved cook stoves (ICS) and processing of biomass in household biogas plant has been found to be very promising technologies and have been promoted extensively by various organizations, including AEPC/ESAP. Both these technologies were introduced in Nepal in the 1950s and currently there is well established system for promoting
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these technologies through the coordinated effort of government, local bodies, NGOs, private sector and community groups. Currently more than 200,000 households have installed ICS and more than 160,000 households have installed biogas plants in Nepal. Although these technologies are well established in Nepal, there is still a need for further scaling up there use throughout Nepal. Other potential biomass energy technologies in Nepal include densification of biomass into briquettes, conversion of biomass into a combustible gas mixture in a gasifier, and production of liquid biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. 5. Benefits of biomass energy technologies Reduction in deforestation Reduction in indoor air pollution and hence smoke- related diseases Reduction in womens drudgery and cooking time Improved sanitation from better management of animal dung and human faeces Improvement in soil fertility because of the use of slurry from biogas plant as biofertilizer Reduced dependence on chemical fertilizer Reduction in green gas emissions Contributions to local economy, through better utilization of local resources Preventions of fire hazards Cleaner kitchen environment 6. Conclusions Because biomass continues to be the main source of energy in Nepal and use of biomass is often associated with major environmental problems such as deforestation and indoor air pollution, there is urgent need to introduce and popularize technologies that will make use of these of the energy resources more efficient, convenient, and cost effective and environment friendly. This requires further research and development as well as promotional activities.