Modelling the potential bioenergy production from agro-forestry crops and residues in angola

The aim of this work is to make an assessment of the biomass resources potential for bioenergy in the province of Huíla, in Angola, namely from crop residues. Huíla province has an area of 79,023 square kilometres (more than the area of Netherlands and Belgium) and a population of 2,354,398 (2014 census). Lubango is the capital of the province. Agricultural residues included especially those generated from maize, sorghum and millet. The preliminary analysis to the data shows that circa 500 000 tonnes of agroforest biomass could be logistically collected and sorted, and circa 9 PJ could be produced. The characteristics of the different crop residues are presented in the study and different scenarios for the exploitation of this biomass were taken into account. In Scenario 1, it was considered business as usual; in scenario 2, it was considered the use of biomass for heat production only. For the different scenarios, the environmental impacts derived from the implementation of the biosystems were discussed, namely in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and non-renewable energy use. Considering Scenario 1, circa 1.8 PJ only can be produced, with several environmental impacts associated. Considering Scenario 2, circa 2.27 PJ of energy can be produced. Yet, different biomass processing options can be considered given the characteristics of the different biomasses. A discussion of the logistics of collection and transportation of the biomass was carried out to evaluate the effect of field cover factor and crop yield.