University of Birmingham Unlocking the potential of biomass energy in Pakistan Saghir, Muhammad; Zafar, Shagufta ; Tahir, Amiza ; Ouadi, Miloud; Siddique, Beenish; Hornung, Andreas DOI: 10.3389/fenrg.2019.00024 License: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY) Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Citation for published version (Harvard): Saghir, M, Zafar, S, Tahir, A, Ouadi, M, Siddique, B & Hornung, A 2019, 'Unlocking the potential of biomass energy in Pakistan', Frontiers in Energy Research. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2019.00024 Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal Publisher Rights Statement: Checked for eligibility: 04/04/2019 First published by Frontiers Media Saghir M, Zafar S, Tahir A, Ouadi M, Siddique B and Hornung A (2019) Unlocking the Potential of Biomass Energy in Pakistan. Front. 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Oct. 2021 REVIEW published: 22 March 2019 doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2019.00024 Unlocking the Potential of Biomass Energy in Pakistan Muhammad Saghir 1*, Shagufta Zafar 2, Amiza Tahir 2, Miloud Ouadi 1, Beenish Siddique 1 and Andreas Hornung 1,3 1 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 2 Department of Chemistry, Government Sadiq College Women University, Bahawalpur, Pakistan, 3 Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Sulzbach Rosenberg, Germany Being a developing economy, Pakistan is facing a severe energy crisis that limits its economic development. Pakistan relies heavily on energy resources like natural gas, oil, hydropower, nuclear, coal and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) which contribute as 48.3, 32.1, 11.3, 7.6, and 0.6% of the primary energy supply, respectively. Because of the rapidly growing population and economy, Pakistan’s energy needs are huge; to accomplish these energy necessities, Pakistan is continually spending $7–9 billion on the import of fossil fuels. To resolve the serious issues of energy availability, the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) of Pakistan is currently exploring the development of renewable energy technologies in Pakistan that will be beneficial for the developing economy so that Pakistan might be able to minimize the growing energy crisis. Out of all the renewable energy resources, biomass is considered the best and most easily Edited by: accessible source of energy with its unique environmentally friendly nature, constant Muhammad Raza Naqvi, supply, wider availability, and ease of integration into existing infrastructure. Despite Karlstad University, Sweden the presence of an abundance of biomass energy resources, there is still a need for Reviewed by: Mohammad Zain Khan, work on the use of these sources to produce energy. This literature review explores the Aligarh Muslim University, India availability of biomass resources in Pakistan and their potential for addressing rapidly Lucian Toma, growing energy demand in the country, which can assist in the stabilization of a Pakistan’s Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania energy demand for challenged economic development. *Correspondence: Keywords: biomass, bioenergy, pyrolysis, gasificaiton, energy, biochar Muhammad Saghir [email protected] INTRODUCTION Specialty section: This article was submitted to The current population of Pakistan is 198,139,348 (198 million) with an annual growth rate of Bioenergy and Biofuels, 1 a section of the journal 1.97% based on the most recent United Nations approximations. Within various sectors of, such as Frontiers in Energy Research domestic consumption, commercial consumption, agriculture, public lighting and bulk supply, the expenditure of energy is 45.7, 7.5, 28.1, 11.8, 0.5, and 6.4%, respectively (Aziz, 2013). Agriculture is Received: 12 November 2018 Accepted: 14 February 2019 the second largest sector of Pakistan’s economy, comprising five subsectors with major crops, minor Published: 22 March 2019 crops, livestock, fisheries, and forestry having a collective share of 21% of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Raza et al., 2012; Chandio et al., 2016). Major crops, minor crops, livestock, and Citation: Saghir M, Zafar S, Tahir A, Ouadi M, forestry contribute 5.3, 2.3, 11.8, and 0.4%, respectively, to the total GDP (Chandio et al., 2016). Siddique B and Hornung A (2019) Agriculture is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy as most of the exports from Pakistan are based Unlocking the Potential of Biomass on agricultural products including rice, cotton, wheat, sugarcane, and many other major and minor Energy in Pakistan. Front. Energy Res. 7:24. 1 doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2019.00024 Worldometer: Population. http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/pakistan-population/ 2017 Frontiers in Energy Research | www.frontiersin.org 1 March 2019 | Volume 7 | Article 24 Saghir et al. Biomass Energy Potential in Pakistan products (Faridi, 2012). Presently, Pakistan is facing a severe TABLE 1 | Energy Demand and Supply Share in Pakistan for the period and unmanageable energy crisis that is hindering socio-economic 1980–20123. development (Mirza et al., 2008a; Aziz, 2013). Energy source Energy demand (%) Energy supply (%) The Energy Situation in Pakistan Coal 0.7 0.8 The industrial and agricultural sectors are the backbones of Electricity 10 14 the economy, and the progress of the economy is directly Natural gas 44 51 linked to the constant availability of energy resources (Abbas, Petroleum 39 27 2015). The main hindrance to the economic development of Pakistan is its poor division of risky energy resources. The power sector of Pakistan remains unsuccessful in overcoming (Cleveland et al., 1984; Kessides, 2013). Because of the heavy the energy-related issues despite being rich in coal resources shortfall in energy production vs. demand, not only domestic (Arif, 2011). Michael Kugelman (Javed et al., 2016) acknowledged but also various dimensions of the industrial sectors are also in his remarks on Pakistan’s energy situation in the National badly affected (Khan and Ahmad, 2008; Aziz, 2013; Saeed et al., Bureau of Asian Research of America, “Pakistan is mired in an 2015). Sixty to seventy percent (60–70%) of industrial investors acute energy crisis, one with immense implications for both the have shifted their businesses to other countries, such as China, nation’s floundering economy and its volatile security situation.” India, and Bangladesh, which is attributed to the increase in At periods of high demand in Pakistan, the electricity supply the energy shortfall, which reaches 40% (Asif, 2009; Saeed et al., gap is ∼6,000 MW, which accounts for 33–35% of the total 2015). In this period of industrialization and globalization, expenditures (Abbas, 2015; Saeed et al., 2015). Pakistan has increasing energy demand cannot be accompanied by only more than 30% of its population (55 million) with no access to depending on natural resources. Since the mid-1970s, natural electricity (Harijan et al., 2008; Saeed et al., 2015). In urban and energy resources have been running low and considerable efforts rural areas the duration of power outages is 6–12 and 12–18 h have been made to produce energy through renewable energy per day, respectively (Saeed et al., 2015).2 Pakistan relies heavily technologies (Mohan et al., 2006). Not only is the industrial on energy resources like natural gas, oil, hydro, nuclear, coal, sector affected, but agricultural productivity is also adversely and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), each of which contributes affected by the rapid decrease in affordable energy availability, 48.3, 32.1, 11.3, 7.6, and 0.6%, respectively, to the primary energy as the proper functioning of all the tools for agriculture—i.e., supply (Rehman et al., 2013). According to recent statistics by for transportation, pesticides and irrigation—are based on the AEDB, the share of various resources of energy, along with a application of energy (Pimentel et al., 1973). Pakistan is not only contribution of 2% from renewable energy, resources involve facing this severe electricity crisis, but a shortage of petroleum natural gas (21%), hydropower (31%), Oil (39%), LNG (4%), and products and