Household waste: a bio-energy source

Energy is a key factor in the socioeconomic development of any country and Pakistan, like many other developing countries, is caught in the cyclone of an energy crisis. In addition to that, it is constantly growing in terms of GDP and population, which has put the country’s resources under severe stress. This alarming issue needs a comprehensive, long-term and all-inclusive solution.

Demand of the electricity sector is around 22,000MW per day. For now, we are depending on conventional sources of energy, which are oil, gas, hydro-electricity, coal and nuclear power. Combining all these sources we still, however, fail to meet the total electricity demand of our country, leaving behind a gap of 5,000MW per day. This shortfall forces urban areas to live without electricity for 10-12 hours a day. Rural areas are even worse, with the hours of power unavailability touching the peak of 16-18 hours a day. To rebuild our future, we need to work tirelessly and look out for alternative resources of energy, including waste and biomass, as our country has an enormous potential for it.

Now let’s look at the option of bringing the potential capacity of household waste to energy conversion. With the gradual increase in population, household waste production is also on the rise. Unfortunately, there is no proper method practically being used in any type of waste management. This mismanagement has created innumerable environmental and serious health issues. Paradoxically, household waste can be a reliable and cost-effective source of power generation. This will not only streamline the waste management issue but also serve as an economical resource to generate energy.



The population boom is a strong contributing factor in solid household waste. The total population estimated for the year 2017 is 197 million, with 39.2% urban population. With the current population and its growth rate, household waste production is touching alarming heights.

The rate of household waste generation on average varies from 0.283kg capita per day to 0.613kg capita per day in rural and urban areas, respectively. The potential capacity for household waste to energy conversion is very high as the raw material is cheap and readily available. Household waste can be utilised to produce a variety of solid, liquid and gas fuels, which will serve as a source of energy. Currently, different methods are being employed to produce fuels from household waste, including combustion, which generates heat directly. Household waste can be transformed into solid fuel, charcoal, liquid bio-oils or gaseous fuels, such as synthetic gas, by using pyrolysis. Through these methods, household waste can be converted into heat, power and fuel production.

We are currently spending 60pc of our total foreign exchange on buying fuels from other countries for generation of energy, though there is still a massive gap. If we make these potential resources work for us, we can practically become a self-reliant nation and can successfully tackle the environmental problems.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2017.

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