Expanding sustenance in Ethiopia based on renewable energy resources – A comprehensive review

Biomass is the major energy source in Ethiopia contributing to about 89% of Ethiopia's primary energy supply. This review aims to determine the biomass resources, value prospective, conversion strategy and biofuel policy in the country. The present energy system and the potential of the broad areas of energy crops, agricultural crop residues, forest product residues, urban wastes and animal wastes are explored. The study on the availability of various biomass resources, together with a brief description of the conversion processes of these resources into biofuel is inspected. The current energy system shows a large variation between urban and rural consumption. Nearly the entire rural households depend on traditional biomass-based energy for cooking, while about 90% of urban households use electricity for lighting. The estimated total amount of biomass resource available for energy in Ethiopia in 2014–2015 is 1120 million tons with the annual energy potential of 46.91 million tons of coal equivalent and the annually exploitable agro-wastes account for 18 million tons. This enormous availability of biomass gives an immense potential to make the most of the biofuel expanding strategies in Ethiopia. The aim of this review is to reflect on various environmental issues resulting from energy production and utilization via sustainable biofuel feedstock.