Biomass… available everywhere!

Cameroon has the third largest biomass potential in Sub-Saharan Africa, though it remains underexploited because of lack of technology.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, UNIDO, holds that Cameroon has the largest biomass potential in Sub-Saharan Africa. The country boasts substantial forest biomass potential (in terms of firewood and wood waste) and considerable non-forest biomass (from agricultural residue), which represent the second source of biomass in the country.

“Biomass is available everywhere,” explained William Lemnyuy Albun Banye, an Agro-Industrial Engineer and Sub-Director for Waste, Toxic and Hazardous Chemical Management in the Ministry of Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development. He stated that the country’s wood, sawdust and industrial waste were some of the products that can generate energy if well exploited. Cameroon’s potential is huge, but few business people are willing to invest. “This sector provides a lot of opportunities for investors,” stressed Albun Banye.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, says over 20 million hectares of Cameroon land is forested landmass. The country however lost over 4 million hectares of forest cover (at an average rate of 220,000 hectares annually) between 1990 and 2010. The forests contain 2,696 million metric tonnes of carbon in living forest biomass.

This covers a wide range of crops generating different quantities of waste from agriculture. Logs from rubber trees, seeds and cake from cotton, parchment bagasse from Robusta coffee, molasses and empty fruit bunches from sugar cane and kernel shells from palm oil, form some of the biomass with economically-recoverable energy.

Although the country has not carried out any commercial production of biofuels, apart from isolated trials by the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, the sugar producing company, SOSUCAM, the cotton company, SODECOTON, MAISCAM and SOCAPALM. The country counts bioethanol from sugarcane, biodiesel from oil palm, groundnut and vegetable oil as well as biogas from urban waste, as first generation biofuel types.

Combustible and renewable waste comprising solid biomass, liquid biomass, biogas, industrial waste, and municipal waste, all measure up to the country’s potential.

The weak link, experts say, is the lack of conversion technology, explained William Lemnyuy Albun Banye. The Ministry of Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development, has however carried out studies that can be easily accessed by potential investors. Investors at the May 17-18, 2016 International Economic Conference in Yaounde on the theme: “Investing in Cameroon, Land of Attractive Opportunities,” now know what awaits them as business openings in the sector.