Quantification and use of forest biomass residues in Maputo province, Mozambique

This article describes a study on the quantification and use of forest biomass residues in Maputo province, in Mozambique. The study was performed based on information from the thematic cartography of soils of Maputo province, provided by the National Direction of Forest and Land of Mozambique, and data for the forest growth rates available in the literature. It was estimated that the total production of forest biomass residues in Maputo province is 1,233,412 ton/year, with a corresponding energy potential of 17,267,771 GJ/year. As a way of making the forest biomass residues profitable, the present work proposes the use of part of the residues as fuel in new power plants to be build in Maputo province. In this part of the study aiming at implanting power plants in Maputo province, it was taken into account the risk of forest fires, number of existing consumers of forest residues, residues availability, protected forests, transport infrastructures and existence of national electric network. It was found that the districts of Magude and Moamba are those that have the best conditions to receive the new biomass power plants. Factors such as the cost of the technology and the degree of pre-treatment of the forest residues have been taken into consideration in choosing the combustion technology for the proposed power plants. In this context, the grate burning technology appears to be the most advantageous from costs/benefits viewpoint. The proposed power plants can produce about 236,520 MWh, which is equivalent to 32% of the energy consumed in Maputo province in 2004.