BIO-ENERGY
Jamal O. Jaber
Faculty of Engineering, Philadelphia University, Amman, Jordan,
on sabbatical leave from the Faculty of Engineering Technology,
Al-Balqa’ Applied University, Jordan
JERA Center Workshop
Amman - Jordan
30 October 2014
INTRODUCTION
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Technical and market potential exists
The contribution of such resource in the
national energy mix is still minor
RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES: BIO-ENERGY
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For the long-term future, ensuring the security
of energy supplies is a highly important issue

Renewable energy is considered the largest
domestic energy source together with oil shale
RE SOURCES IN JORDAN
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Solar (Jordan has abundant supplies of solar
energy, with relatively high average daily solar
radiation of 5.5 kWh m2 day) and sunshine
duration is around 2900 hours, which can be
considered sufficient to provide enough energy
for solar heating/cooling applications
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Wind Energy: Strong wind regime (annual average wind speed
exceeds 6m/s at 10m height).
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A wind atlas exists for Jordan since 1988.
Two pilot wind farms : -4x80 kW at Al-Ibrhymia, 1989
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-5x225kW at Hofa, 1996
Water pumping using mechanical wind turbines
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Geothermal: Very limited geothermal resources
due to the low enthalpy not allowing for
commercially viable electric power generation.
Hydro Power: Limited hydro power resources
due to the fact of surface water resources
being almost negligible
 There is some potential for mini-hydro systems
and the Red-Dead canal
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BIOMASS
Biomass energy includes all fuels derived from
biological sources, such as charcoal,
agricultural, animal and municipal wastes
 Energy from biomass in Jordan has, as yet,
achieved little significance and only appears to
offer a low potential because of the severe
constraints on vegetation growth imposed by
the arid climate

solid wastes in Jordan represent an energy
potential of about 105 toe annually, but municipal
solid waste represents a major fraction with a
gross annual production rate of more than 3
million toe
 The daily average per capita varies between 0.35
kg and 0.95 kg in rural and urban regions,
respectively, of municipal solid waste, and the
typical gross calorific value is between 7 and 11
MJ/kg

A pilot project (3 MW) on the utilization of
municipal solid waste for electricity generation
through landfill and biogas technology systems
 At present, there is a plan to utilize other
landfill sites
 Kettle and poultry farms have good potential
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CURRENT PROJECTS
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Integrated Waste Recycling Systems for Agricultural and
Environmental Safety Purposes in Rural Communities (NERC)
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Specific Objectives:
1.
To design, build and operate bio-digester demonstration pilot plant
(D-PP) in a rural village in the north of Jordan.
2.
To examine the effectiveness and safety of using the products of the
process, the biogas and the compost, and the contribution to the
economy of the family household and of the local agriculture
(including examination / demonstration of household appliances
operated on biogas).
DAIR YOUSEF FARM

Digester size about 16 m3 included the dome
and operation of electrical mixer using the
photovoltaic panels.
KOFR ABEEL SITE
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The digester was successfully
implemented by using concrete, iron,
bricks, and it consists of four layers,
the inner layer is bricks, the second
layer is double face of rock wool, the
third layer is cement with iron rods
and the fourth layer is bricks, the
concrete dome was implemented in
the digester for collecting the biogas
yield. Solar collector was used to
feed-in the digester with warm
temperature around 40 C, to increase
the biogas yield within shortage
period.
BIOGAS UNITS FOR SMALL ANIMAL FARMS
OBJECTIVES
To demonstrate the biogas technology in a highly populated
animal farms areas like AL-Khaeledia region/Mafraq Governorate,
and Al-Dleel region in Zarqa Governorate. These two regions have
at least 69 % of total dairy farms in Jordan, please see table below.
At least 64466 cows were breeded in 143 dairy farms in these two
regions. The massive organic waste produced by these dairy farms
is estimated by 644 tons every day. The major part of manure is
either disposed in landfills or randomly disposed in near
communities
The most important weaknesses that may
hinder efforts in developing Bio-Energy
and other renewable energy sources in
Jordan are:
 the available financing schemes
 the low level of awareness
 the future price of energy (electricity)
generated by renewable sources.
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It is still uncommon, in Jordan, to find banks’ that
have special financing programs, with reduced service
charges, to support RE and EE projects, despite the
credit-line (special loan) offered by the French Agency
for Development (AFD)
JREEEF was created by the REEEL as an operating
unit within MEMR to contribute to the development of
renewable energy and energy efficiency in Jordan.
However, it is still not operational, yet.
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The lack of awareness on the importance and
potential of bio-energy, not only among government
officials, but also among scientist, researchers,
NGO and the general public is delaying the fast
penetration of the technology
Generating awareness on the necessity of
renewable energy on all levels is considered as the
main driver for prioritizing renewable energy in
energy policies and plans.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The existing problems related to bio-energy (RE ) market in
Jordan could be grouped into four main clusters as follows:
 Lack of incentives and financial resources to support RE
projects.
 Lack of know-how of RE technologies and inefficient
management of RE affairs.
 Lack of political well and inefficient implementation of RE
regulations.
 Lack of applied research and inadequate study and training
curricula related to RE sources and technologies.
To overcome the above listed problems, the concerned ministries
and public institutions should be committed to a non-reversible
path and vision for renewable targets, and does so by adopting
the following key principles:
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A commitment to a phased approach involving an investment
program that exploits the cost and technical potential of each RE
technology option.
Removal of obstacles and facilitation of on-going projects as a
matter of urgency and concomitant strengthening of public
institutions.
Developing a national RE master plan with stakeholder buy-in
engaging with the rural communities as a key cornerstone of the
renewable energy program.
Picking the lowest hanging fruit with the immediate launch of
projects that eat away at the peak demand, including distributed
energy projects that can yield immediate employment opportunities.
Encouraging technological innovation.
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