Assessing the energy potential of agricultural residues and an approach to meet the rural energy demand: the Bangladesh perspective

Bangladesh produces an abundant amount of agricultural residues (crops and livestock) in the rural areas every year. An innovative and sustainable method is presented in this study for assessing their countrywide sustainable energy potentiality and to utilize these residues to meet the energy demand of households of rural Bangladesh. In this study, available data in published literature regarding residue characteristic factors along with their processing techniques were collected and used. The proposed method has been applied to estimate the energy potentials of agricultural residues in Bangladesh in the cropping season 2015–2016. The results show that the available agricultural residues in the rural areas of Bangladesh have the potentiality of producing 9693 million m³/year of biogas and were calculated to be 223 PJ/year equivalents to 7075 MW, close to the (88%) national energy demand. The proposed method could be the best option for meeting the rural energy demand, and a case study was depicted to validate the approach and a proof for sustainable technology.