Biofuel Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The quest for renewable and sustainable energy generation is fast becoming widespread across Africa due to the understanding that there is a need to seek an alternative to fuels of fossil origin, which currently sustains the largest portion of the world’s energy need. Research into the generation of renewable fuels had been on-going in continents like Europe, South America, Asia, and other developed countries bearing in mind the extinction nature of fossil fuels. Globally, attentions are being drawn to fuel generation from biomass and its derivatives such as lignin, triglycerides, cellulose, and hemicelluloses. The aim is to use such fuels for cooking and heating and in vehicles, jet engines, and other applications. Therefore, the integration of the African continent in the race for biofuel production is germane in the quest for survival and developments considering favorable factors like climate, soil, and land mass among other environmental-friendly resources in different African countries.