LAHORE: A little effort has been made by the government to generate power from animal dung, carrying a power generation potential of 4800-5600 MW, said sources from the Punjab Energy Department (PED).
Similarly, they said, the organic and inorganic wastes produced by human activities form Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) has a potential of electricity generation of 560 kWh/t and 220 kWh/t from the thermochemical and biochemical conversion, respectively. The sources said the annual MSW production capacity in Pakistan is 25.5 Mt with a 2.5 percent growth rate. It is expected that the volume of MSW will further increase in future. However, no proper recycling process is being applied to the disposition of MSW, they added.
They said the installed capacity of these two sources is negligible despite a clear stress of the government on alternative energy sources. As envisioned by the Pakistani government to enhance the share of renewables in the total energy mix of the country from 1.1 percent to 5 percent by 2030, biomass energy has high prospects to achieve this target. The government of Pakistan is looking for cost-effective, clean energy contributed 1.1 percent to the total energy mix of the country. However, the government plans to increase its share by 5 percent until 2030.
In the long-run, the Pakistani government has the plan to uplift renewable energy's share to 30 percent until 2030. It may be noted that handling enormous MSW is a challenging process that has increased public health issues recently. A survey of 12 landfills carried out by the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) has calculated that the amount of MSW generated every day here has a net potential of 400 MW. By utilising the MSW of these locations, the national grid can get a total of 2747 GWh electricity annually.
Research findings reveal that the abundant biomass resources of the country include fuelwood, agricultural residues, animal dung, and municipal solid waste. As many as 85 sugar industries of the country produce enough bagasse to generate 5800 GWh of electricity. Corn stalk, sugarcane trash, rice straw, wheat straw, and cotton stalks are the major crop residues having a production of 6.43, 8.94, 17.86, 35.6, and 50.6 Mt, respectively.
Electricity consumption increased from 76,789 GWh in 2012 to 106,927 GWh in 2018. At the same time, air quality has deteriorated due to overdependence on thermal energy. Thermal power plants, industrial units and the increasing number of vehicles are responsible for air pollution in Pakistan.
Biomass is considered as an environment-friendly and safe electricity generation source. Different resources of biomass, including crop residues and animal dung, have the propensity to generate bio energy with fewer emissions of greenhouse gases.
The total installed capacity of biomass energy has reached 130 GW globally. As 63 percent of the Pakistani population resides in rural areas, the highest share of biomass consumption is occupied by the household sector i.e., 76 percent. Animal waste, forest residues, agricultural residues, and municipal solid waste are the potential biomass resources that can be used for energy generation in Pakistan.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020