Charcoal is the primary energy used for cooking and heating in millions of homes and restaurants in the Global South. In Africa alone, which produces 65% of global production, an estimated 195million people are engaged in the production of firewood and charcoal. Despite decades of efforts to transition away from charcoal, consumption is growing and expected to increase in the foreseeable future as it continues to be the most affordable, accessible and preferred cooking fuel. Where wood supplies are diminishing, growing demand for charcoal threatens forests and forest-dependent livelihoods; it also frustrates efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and curb biodiversity loss. Securing biomass that is renewable, reliable, economically viable and culturally acceptable is urgently needed in the Global South to develop sustainable charcoal sectors. In this policy brief, we present three tested approaches for producing feedstock for charcoal that can be applied to diverse contexts.
Tag: feedstocks
Biomass resources of Phragmites australis in Kazakhstan: Historical developments, utilization, and prospects
Common reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. Ex Steud.) is a highly productive wetland plant and a potentially valuable source of renewable biomass worldwide. There is more than 10 million ha of reed area globally, distributed mainly across Eurasia followed by America and Africa. The literature analysis in this paper revealed that Kazakhstan alone harbored ca. 1,600,000-3,000,000 ha of reed area, mostly distributed in the deltas and along the rivers of the country. Herein, we explored the total reed biomass stock of 17 million t year-1 which is potentially available for harvesting in the context of wise use of wetlands. The aim of this paper is to reveal the distribution of reed resource potential in wetland areas of 13 provinces of Kazakhstan and the prospects for its sustainable utilization. Reed can be used as feedstock as an energy source for the production of pellets and biofuels, as lignocellulosic biomass for the production of high strength fibers for novel construction and packaging materials, and innovative polymers for lightweight engineering plastics and adhesive coatings. Thereby, it is unlikely that reed competes for land that otherwise is used for food production. © 2020 by the authors.