Bio-energy Revolution in Nigeria: Ahmadu Bello University Zaria Leads the Pace II

Bio-energy Revolution in Nigeria: Ahmadu Bello University Zaria Leads the Pace II

In my last week article, it was reported that ABU was being forced to source for alternative energy as a result of unaffordable and unsustainable electricity bill the university shoulders monthly. However, the university looks beyond the payment of electricity bill but moves to turn this adversity to prosperity. Use the technology to build human capacity for the nation. Can ABU succeed?

X-raying the human resources and infrastructure at the university’s disposal, ABU requires only technical and financial supports to succeed in this venture. In fact, ABU is one of the leading Ivory Towers known for championing a technological development for the benefit of Nigeria and humanity in general. For instance, in recent times, ABU was reported to have designed and successfully built a mini-refinery using locally sourced materials for economic and academic usage. The motivations for the building of the refinery were the concern of the university for the huge foreign exchange invested to repair and undertake the so-called turn-around maintenance of the refineries in the country. This was succinctly captured by Prof. Ibrahim Ali Mohammed-Dabo, the team leader of ABU Refinery Research Team who was quoted by Daily Trust, a national daily in its edition of 26^th January, 2017.  He said, “One of the refineries located in Kaduna was built by Chioda, a Japanese Chemical Engineering Company. Ironically Japan is not an oil producing country but has invested hugely and developed a petroleum refinery technology exporting it to other countries. Another motivating factor is that whenever some components or sections of the Nigerian state-owned refineries develop faults the original designers have to be called upon to rectify the problems”. No doubt, this feat is the first of its kind in Africa as stated by Prof. Dabo “This ABU mini-refinery is the second refinery housed within a university globally. The first is in Spain. Many universities have facilities for oil and gas related teaching, research and development but domiciled in laboratories unlike our own which is completely in the field mimicking the real industrial set-up”. The acquisition of technical-know–how to build refinery with local materials has huge potential for foreign exchange earning to the nation. Ordinarily, this area should attract investors.

Back to the bio-energy revolution in Nigeria, Biogas is one of the alternative sources of fuel that can supply both electricity and cooking need. Some of the advantages of Biogas in addition to electricity and fuel for cooking, the waste generated from the digester is a rich and refined organic fertilizer. Use of bio fuel for cooking automatically eliminates the use of fuel wood by the rural farmers thereby reducing deforestation, a menace with serious ecological consequences. Above all, biogas is cheaper than all forms of conventional energy in Nigeria while improving agricultural productivity and sustaining the environment. Hence, biogas technology is the most reliable and adequate means for a sustainable livelihood that should be championed by all and sundry.

In Nigeria, there are pockets of biogas projects scattered nationwide as reported in my previous articles, some private sectors are also involved such as NASRUN Nig. Ltd. This company has facilitated the establishment of the largest Biogas Plant in Nigeria; the Kutunku Farms, Minna, Niger state. The Biogas Plant size occupies about 140 m³. The biogas project in Nigeria becomes necessary because the household sector has consistently accounted for over half of Nigeria’s total domestic energy consumption. It is based on this premise that the ABU – BIONAS partnership, consummated by signing of MOU rekindles hope and make ABU in the spotlight of the bio-energy revolution. During the groundbreaking ceremony for signing of the MOU, the Chief Executive Officer, BIONAS Nigeria, Umar Sani Gambo was quoted saying “the essence of the collaboration with Ahmadu Bello University is to transfer technology under the BIONAS brand. BIONAS is planning to develop a Centre for Excellence that would provide a training platform for the industries”. While appreciating the warm reception and encouragement from the ABU management, the BIONAS CEO said the company agreed to partner with ABU for national growth and development. He was similarly quoted saying “in order to reposition the firm well in Nigeria; it forged a relationship with the Federal Ministry of Environment”. Ms Zurina Amnan The Group Chief Executive Officer of Bionas worldwide was among the BIONAS delegation at the occasion in the University’s VC chamber.

ABU has found a good partner in BIONAS for achieving its lofty objective of sourcing alternative energy as the firm is refuted to be credible as a vanguard for green energy globally. BIONAS is present in over 50 countries driving the Jatropha Value Chain for bio fuel production. Its activities were widely reported last year indicating vigor to boost Nigerian economy through huge investment. It has started investing through a plan to establish a $2.5 billion factory for the mass production of bio-fuel from the Jatropha plants in Zaria.  The Group Chief Executive was reported saying that “Jatropha Plantation would soon be set up, while processing machines would be installed at Zaria Factory in short while as we don’t want to repeat the past mistake again.” Accordingly, BIONAS Nigeria plans to train over 200,000 Nigerians for the project, especially graduates of science or engineering and to acquaint them with the latest energy technology for bio-fuel supply and distribution. These trainees are expected to implement the Jatropha programme in other African countries, as there are huge markets for the bio fuel across the continent. In addition, BIONAS plans to invest in housing units, commercial clinic, schools, across the nation. However, the main focus is to build a new town for Jatropha project in Nigeria, while making BIONAS seeds available to farmers where Jatropha plants are produced for making bio fuel including aviation fuel, which sells at the same price with fossil fuel.

Jatropha curcas is a resilient shrub, which grows in a range of terrain including area considers as wasteland, sandy soil and saline soil where many crops cannot be grown. It is considered to be a drought tolerance plant, which requires relatively smaller quantity of water to survive. It does not require any particular soil type for growth and   can   perform   on   diverse   soil compositions. Jatropha cultivation is gaining popularity while scientists are actively investigating its suitability for the economic advantage over other crops as source for bio fuel. Research has indicated that Jatropha oil yield in Nigeria is above 40%. Nigeria has deforested and large chunks of wasteland mass, which can be utilized for the Jatropha cultivation. Hitherto, Jatropha was used essentially as a boundary plant for fencing farmlands and compounds in rural areas of Nigeria especially in the far north.

Coincidently, the ABU – BIONAS partnership is certainly to benefit from impressive research results on Jatropha conducted by Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), one of the oldest and most formidable agricultural research centre in the country. IAR is one of the twelve research centres under the authority of ABU. IAR is the only research Institute in Nigeria with mandate to genetically develop Jatropha alongside other crops. Already, IAR has characterized more than varieties of Jatropha in the country. Similarly, many research works on Jatropha has been going on in a nearby research centre; National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT), Zaria. Additionally, there is another formidable stakeholder; National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), which another ABU centre with national mandate for agricultural extension. NAERLS ability to mobilize farmers for mass crop production is splendid. Presently, NAERLS is directly working with over 7, 000 farmers under the adopted village concept within the three local government areas surrounding ABU. With these three research and extension centres in Zaria, ABU – BIONAS partnership is heading for success when these stakeholders are brought on board.

Bio-energy Revolution in Nigeria: Ahmadu Bello University Zaria Leads the Pace

Bio-energy Revolution in Nigeria: Ahmadu Bello University Zaria Leads the Pace

In the event of fire outbreak, an involuntarily action of every sensible person is to bring water to quench it, what if the water catches fire? In this case, what one needs to do to address the situation is beyond the sensibility of an ordinary person. It is a situation when water is being made to release heat energy in form of fire. It is simply a product of science and technology. My readers may remember one of my articles on vehicle using water instead of petrol to energize it. The article was published in June, 2016, which reported the breakthrough of an Israeli company for developing a unique technology that uses metal, air and water to power a vehicle. The technology has enormous potential for revolutionizing the world’s use of energy from water, which geographers say occupies over 70 % of the earth’s surface. The uniqueness of this technology is that instead of vehicle owners refilling their tank with petrol every several hundred kilometers distance travel, or having to recharge or exchange a battery in case of electric/solar vehicles, the only necessary ingredient for refueling the vehicle is water- a commodity, abundantly available, and of course, much cheaper than petroleum products. When this technology is perfected, it will certainly make vehicles operation highly cost-efficient. Other equally efficient and environmentally friendly source of energy is the bio-energy, which is obtained from biogas as alternative to petroleum. This alternative source of energy is gradually coming to Nigeria; Ahmadu Bello University Zaria is in the forefront for championing this noble cause.

Ahmadu Bello University Zaria is one of the first generation universities in Nigeria. It was established in 1962 by the Government of the then Northern Region of Nigeria to impart knowledge and learning to men and women of all races without distinction on the grounds of race, religious or political beliefs. The founding fathers expected the University to aspire to the highest international ideals of scholarship and to provide learning of a standard required and expected of a university of the highest standing while reflecting the needs, the traditions, and the social and intellectual heritage of the society in which it is located. The University was taken over by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 1975 and has since then assum a national mandate although its ties with the 19 states created out of the former Northern Region remain very strong and ever glued

In the over forty years of its existence, ABU has grown to become the largest, and the most influential and diverse university in Nigeria. It consists of over 100 Academic Departments, twelve Faculties, and twelve Research Institutes and Specialized Centres. The University offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in diverse fields of Agriculture, Public and Business Administration, Engineering, Environmental Design, Education, Biological and Physical Sciences, Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Humanities, Law and Social Sciences. The university has two campuses; Samaru and Kongo covering an estimated area of 7,000 hectares of land. Another unique feature of the University, as opposed to other Institutions of its type in Nigeria, is that it has both staff and students from all nooks and cranny of Nigeria, neighboring countries and few other countries across the continents. The university alumni cut across the social classes from former Nigerian President, Vice President, serving and former governors/Deputy governors of virtually all the 36 governors plus Federal Capital Territory, Abuja down to hundreds of local government councilors and ordinary graduates of different specializations nationwide.

The motivation for ABU to source for alternative energy came from the university’s desire to drastically reduce the monthly electricity bill being paid to PHCN. The bill runs to tens of millions of Naira, which is hardly affordable and certainly unsustainable to this giant citadel of learning in the face of academic recession. This is why the Vice Chancellor, Professor Ibrahim Garba is inexorably exploring all avenues to make the university self sufficient in power generation and even supply to the surrounding communities at a “give away price” as part of the university’s corporate social responsibility. The university is pursuing three of such efforts vigorously. The first one is the Nigeria-German Energy Partnership for the construction of 10 Mega watts from solar energy source. This is being implemented with a financial assistance from Tertiary Education Trust Fund. The second one is through a collaborative project with a Hungarian firm; Agrar-Biothanol Company to generate power from farm produce and human waste (faeces). The ABU- Agrar-Biothanol Company project targets to produce 2.66 million litres of ethanol per annum, 1,333 tons of liquid organic fertilizer per annum and 1.2 Mega watts of electricity. The third equally important effort is ABU-BIONAS project whose Memorandum of Understanding  (MOU) between the university and BIONAS, a Malaysian Firm, were signed two weeks ago. The company will work with the university intelligentsia to produce and train students and entrepreneurs on renewable energy technology transfer to industries. These are initiatives of the Vice Chancellor immediately after resumption of office in 2015 when he was welcomed by the mounting challenge of paying sky-rocketed electricity bill of over 80 million Naira monthly. He was quoted during a groundbreaking ceremony of one of these laudable projects at the university’s main campus in Samaru saying, “that independent power generation became imperative and necessary to the university because ABU could not sustain the N86 million monthly electricity bills. ABU seeks to address these issues by building a bio-ethanol and biogas plant for the benefits of the university and the surrounding communities”.  Before these recent efforts, one of the units of the University, National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) in 2014 constructed on bio-gas digester in Nasarawan Buhari village, one of the adopted villages of NAERLS.

As written in one of my articles titled “NAERLS – WAAPP (Nigeria) – GAWAL Collaborative Effort: Pushing Biogas Technology in Nigeria”. It was mentioned that in Nigeria, the biogas technology was limited to research works in Universities and Research Centres where its generation and use were investigated, verified and in most cases kept on shelves. However, an effort was made by West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP-Nigeria) and NAERLS of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria to disseminate the biogas technology to farmers in Nigeria. Already, biogas digesters were built in Enugu, Ondo, Edo, Kwara, Oyo, Plateau states and Abuja for the biogas production. The plants are working efficiently. These digesters were built with active participation of rural dwellers, notably farmers. The idea was to pass the awareness and the knowledge of the technology to the beneficiaries thereby increasing its adoption. That was how the digester was built and tested to the admiration of the people of Nasarawan Buhari and their then Giwa Local Government Chairman. That effort would have gone far and Nigeria would have been reaping the benefits of biogas technology but for lackadaisical attitude of then government at both state and local government levels. The biogas technology is today famous in China and India because of the high energy for small-scale industries and domestic requirements of the population especially in the rural areas. The Chinese people discovered they need great amount of energy to run many of their country-side (cottage) industries at the minimal cost in order to break even. Thus, the intensification of research in this area by the Chinese government: the efforts have today yielded the result of a bio organically managed gas generation technology.

The ABU efforts in addressing its energy bill has necessitated the university to lead the country for accessing alternative source of energy at the same time championing bio energy revolution in Nigeria. What is the prospect of ABU succeeding? (To be continued next week)