Biomass energy includes all fuels derived from biological sources, such as charcoal, agricultural, animal and municipal wastes. It is reported that almost 50% of the world’s population, especially in developing countries, use these sources for cooking and/or heating, and account for about 14% of the total world energy consumption.

                           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. Direct combustion of biomass provides some energy for cooking and heating in rural areas: it is the main source of energy for Bedouins in desert. It has been estimated that animal and solid wastes in Jordan represent an energy potential of about 10⁵ toe annually, but municipal solid-waste represents major fraction with a gross annual production rate of approximately 1.1 million tones. The organic content of solid waste in Jordan is around 60%. 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 typical gross calorific value is between 7-11 MJ kg^-1, following seasonal variations.

                       The utilisation of bio-energy in the form of biogas from animal and domestic wastes has also been investigated, with the aim of introducing a family fermentation-unit, which produces biogas for domestic purposes. A techno-economic feasibility study for electric-power generation from municipal solid-waste has been carried out in co-operation with the United Nations’ Development Programme in Amman (UNDP, 1994).

                    The results of the study were encouraging, and the Municipality of Amman and United Nations’ Global Environmental Facility financed a pilot biogas project at the Amman municipal waste-disposal site. This new project aimed at extracting gases from the landfill site in order to fuel the 1 MW diesel generation unit, which came on line in the year 2000, and supply the network with generated electricity. Thereby avoiding the need for approximately 2000 tonnes of diesel fuel, with an associated savings of about 0.5 million US$ annually, consequently the resultant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions is about 10,000 tonnes (NERC, 2002).

                      After, nearly, two years of successful operation of this pilot project and overcoming starting problems, it is wise to expand activities in order to utilize the available potential in main dumping sites in Jordan (MEMR, 1998-2002). Waste must be given top priority in Jordan if tough international protocols to cut levels of air pollution are to be met. The capacity of the biogas was increased to 4.5 MW in this year.