| Abstract | In Afghanistan, fuelwood, charcoal, crop residues and animal manure are the staple biomass based fuel, mostly used in the residential sector. The first objective of the study assesses the energy potential of forest fuelwood and charcoal, crop residues (wheat straw, rice straw, rice husk, barley straw, maize stalks and maize cobs)and cattle manure in 2012-13 and 2013-14. The total estimated energy potential of these biomass resources was 97,310 TJ in 2012-13 and 99,012 TJ in 2013-14. In this energy potential, the shares of forest fuelwood (directly used for energy), charcoal (transformed from the forest fuelwood), crop residues and cattle manure were 12.7%, 3.5%, 69.4% and 14.5%, respectively. About 48% of this energy is estimated from the surplus biomass and 52% from the energy used biomass. The estimated energy potential of the selected biomass could contribute about 69% in the total primary energy consumption (140,966 TJ) of Afghanistan in 2012-13. In the second objective of the study, the cooking efficiencies of six currently used cook stoves were determined, and for replacing the three stone cook stove, suitable improved cook stoves (Anagi II and improved chulha) were identified which can save 40% and 43% of fuelwood, respectively. Biogas plant is not currently used in Kandahar province. For its application, the biogas potential from the cattle manure was determined. Kandahar had 101,747 head of cattle in 2013-14.These cattle’s manure biogas potential was 13,913,608 m3 in 2013-14. Among various types of biogas plants, the DSAC-Model biogas plant was considered suitable for Kandahar province. In the case study of dairy farm, the techno-financial analysis of the identified biogas plant was carried out. For this case, the NPV was 5,836 USD, B/C 1.92, IRR 50% and the discounted payback period (PP) was 2.7 years. These show attractiveness for investment in the biogas plant in Kandahar province of Afghanistan. |