Proceedings World Bioenergy 2010

Pakistan’s reserves. Pakistani bureaucracy rushed to
reach an agreement with the Saudi government to provide
$5.9 billion of Oil on deferred payments i.e. 6 month
supply [26]. Prior to this, oil prices in Pakistan reached
unbearable levels and first signs of severe shortage had
begun to appear as the government did not have the
reserves to buy oil [30]. This incident exposed a major
flaw in Pakistan’s energy security.
2.2.3 Electricity
Electricity is another important source of energy in
Pakistan. The average share of electricity as a percentage
of the total energy consumed was was about 18% during
1998-2007. Electricity consumption grew in all economic
sectors during the last five years. Currently Pakistan is
facing severe electricity crisis as the shortfall has varies
between 3000 to 4000 MW [24].
The current energy crisis stems from the decline in
hydro sources of energy and over reliance on the
expansive source of electricity. On top there are 30%
transmission losses due to poor quality
infrastructure and large scale power theft [25]. Another
issues is what has come to be known as circular debt.
IPPs or Independent Power Producers make up 45.23%
of Pakistan’s electricity supply. These IPPs sell
electricity to the government, however many of them
have faced delay in payments, and many remain unpaid.
Therefore many IPPs has stopped operations as they
could no longer finance themselves [3].
The issue is also related to the problem of oil as oilbased
thermal plants accounts supply 68% of generating
capacity, far more than the 30% share of hydroelectric
plants [7]. Rising oil prices and the depreciation of the
rupee has led to huge generation costs, while several IPPs
saw their costs rising and were forced to close down as
payments were not made [5]. As a result, manufacturing
costs and inflation are rising and, Pakistani exports are
becoming expensive, further pushing pressure on the
deficit ridden balance of payments [24]. All of this has
negatively impacted economic growth. Overall the
energy sector of Pakistan is poorly managed, service
quality is low, theft of power and gas is rampant and until
recently, most utilities are still receiving subsidies
making them even more inefficient [32].
Therefore, it can see that Pakistan’s energy mix relies
heavily on Oil, Gas and electricity, all of which are
creating uncertainty for Pakistan’s energy needs. Even
though average consumption of oil is falling, its unstable
price creates havoc for Pakistan. Gas reserves too have
depleted and soon Pakistan will start importing gas from
Iran to fulfill its needs. Coming to electricity, generation
is not keeping up with demand and there is a dire need to
fill the gap as it has already has a significant negative
impact on industry. To get Pakistan out of this crisis and
prepare for the future there is an urgent need to expand
and upgrade the domestic resource base, by exploring
new sources, exploiting existing ones, improving
efficiency, undertaking conservation efforts and diversity
the energy mix through alternative energy [16; 7]. One of
such alternative energy solution is Biomass, which seems
very promising for Pakistan.
3 POTENTIAL FOR BIOMASS:
There are several alternative energy solutions being
implemented throughout the world. Efforts range from
capturing wind power though wind turbines, Solar energy
using PV cells and even capturing kinetic energy of tidal
waves in the oceans to produce what is known as Tidal
Power. Biomass is one such solution which shows
promise and potential within Pakistan. However to look
at the significance and potential of Biomass as an
alternate energy of fuel it is important to get insights into
exactly what it really is.
3.1 What is Biomass?
Biomass essentially is organic matter i.e. plants, that
can be used as renewable energy. The energy comes from
stored sun light through photosynthesis, known as Bio
energy. Unlike Fossil fuels, which have been created
through millions of years of heat and pressure, Biomass
comes from fresh sources that can be grown again with
relative ease [22]. Most Biomass fuels recycle agriculture
byproducts. This can be from, cow dung [biogas] and
agricultural residues [bio diesel or ethanol] or non
agriculture byproducts such as fuel wood from forests,
while traditional biomass, relies on such things as directly
incineration firewood or cow dung, have serious
implications for health and emissions [34]; however they
are still prevalent in developing countries, where 2.4-2.5
billion people still rely on it (mainly for cooking), a
number that is set to increase to 2.7 billion by the year
2030. Already in the South Asia region 70-80%
individuals rely in some way to traditional Biomass. In
Pakistan 19% of Biomass energy is sourced from, cow
dung, 22% from crop residue and 60% from fuel wood
[10].
As the source of Biomass is basically agriculture (and
forestry), there is immense potential for Biomass within
Pakistan, which is largely an agricultural economy.
3.2 Bio energy Potential of Pakistan
Agriculture accounts for for 21% of the GDP and
employees 45% of the total workforce and is hence the
largest employer [11; 7]. 62% of the population already
lives in the rural areas, where agriculture is the main
source of income.
Of the Total area of 79.61 million hectares of the
country, 27% is cultivated while only 8% is forest [12].
The ratio of cultivated land to population is 0.16 ha per
person. Of the cropped area, Food grains are grown on
56%, cash crops on 17%, pulses on 7%, oilseeds on 3%,
fruits on 2%, vegetables and condiments on 1% each, and
other crops, including fodder, on 13%. Most of the 17.2
million hectares of cultivated area is irrigated and 70% of
the water is supplied by canals, thanks to the Indus Basin,
the largest continuous irrigation system in the world,
provides most of the canal irrigation. 30% of water
comes from wells. Traditionally monsoons in July and
August and conventional winter rains ,in January and
February have been a source of irrigation as well.
It must be noted that Maize and Sugar Cane, are both
large sources of Bio-ethanol, and are among the top 5
major crops of the country [7]. Looking at livestock,
while the contribution of the crop sector declined from 65
percent of the total agricultural activity in 1990-91 to just
43.9 percent in 2009-2010, the share of livestock has
risen from 30 percent to 53.2 percent over this period, or
11.4% of the total GDP, therefore becoming the biggest
contributor to agriculture [7; 8]. This is derived from an
estimated livestock population of 30.8 millon Buffaloes,
34.3 million cattle, 59.9 million goats , sheep 27.8 and
610 milion chickens [7], averaging close to 2-5 cattle per
household [23]. The estates for making biogas from these
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