Nigerian born
Inventors, their Inventions, Challenges and Opportunities IV
Nelson Eze is one of the silent, obscured and
uncelebrated Nigerian inventors. Yet, his inventions are ironic with a capacity
to address the Nigerian perennial and persisting energy crisis in
environmentally friendly manner. He invented a generator, which is powered with
water without fumes and developed a machine for converting a waste to fuel and
methane gas. A water powered generator will certainly be loved and adored by
all and sundry in this period of economic uncertainty. Eze is 22-year-old lad from Imilike-Agu
village in Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State who has spent most of his
life in Awka, the Anambra State capital. He is a student of the Instrumentation
and Control System Engineering of the National Metallurgical Training
Institute, Onitsha, Anambra State. The Eze's story was published in The
Guardian Newspaper of 23rd July, 2016. He was quoted by the paper
saying “I have quite some number of
inventions, but for now it is only three of them that I want Nigerians to be
aware of. One of them is a portable hydroelectric generating set. It is a
portable generator that uses water instead of gasoline. It can be used to power
a house. It is still under development, but now I have one that can work,
but I can’t say it is completely okay now because I still need to improve on it".
What motivated him to substitute fuel with water for powering a generator set?
Was it the ever increasing price of fuel, which is becoming unaffordable? was
it the fuel scarcity and adulteration in many cities of Nigeria? None of these
as Eze provided the answer “I came about the idea of the machine when I was in
primary six. I lost a friend to generator fumes. He was watching a movie in the
parlour while the generator was on. Suddenly there was rain and the family
decided to bring the generator close to the parlour and everybody slept in the
process. The fumes from the generator that found its way into the room killed
my friend. It was a very pathetic and ugly incident for me. I was a year ahead
of him in school then, but we were very close. It was from there that I vowed
to find an alternative to gasoline generator. It was like saying if the
whiteman can make Nigeria generate electricity from water, why can’t they get
them into smaller shapes like the one we have in our houses to serve the same
purpose?" Eze's dream became a reality after critical thinking and
experimentation. “Today, I have been able to design a generating set that can
use water to power one room. It can carry your bulbs, fans and television, but
not pressing iron, fridge and air-conditioners.” Eze told The Guardian
newspaper. On how long the hydro-electric generator can last, he said: “As long
as the water is there, the generator keeps running. You only need to change
water when you want. We want to end smoke, because the machine does not have
exhaust pipes, you can keep it in your room while it is working. Its sound is
very minimal. I want to upgrade them to even enable them power a community. I
use the one I have developed in my place but it is not that efficient because
some of the components still need to be improved on, because I picked some of
them from the waste bin”.
While he was still perfecting his
generator, Eze developed another machine capable of transforming waste to fuel.
He names it “Mgbanwe C12”, which means "change or transform",
what a name in this era of change dispensation. Mgbanwe C12 was designed
to convert waste to fuel. The motivation for Eze is simply to get rid of the
massive waste in the cities of Nigeria. He was quoted saying "The major
challenge we have been having is waste disposal. I am not saying that waste
management people are not doing enough. I had to think of the way of taking
care of these wastes permanently and even bring them to generate funds and
create employment. I engaged in a kind of research on what to do with those
waste and that made me start with an experiment. I can still remember that
during the time of flooding and you see wastes here and there. They don’t
decay, but block drainages. “That was what actually moved me to find how really
transform these wastes. The idea was that if I create a machine that can return
waste back to its original state, then I could extract oil in it and transform
it to fuel. I was able to complete the machine. So the machine is working and
not only that it can turn waste to fuel, it can give you the best form of
interlocking stone”. For his ingenuity, Eze won a trophy
during; “in 2015, I represented Enugu State in
Abuja at NTA/ETV Expo 2015. My project was the overall best. I brought trophy
for Enugu State.
Energy
crisis and its unsteadiness affect not only the daily lives
of the people, but also the regular operation of the businesses and thus,
became a centre of attraction to our inventors. Unlike Eze whose generator
operates with water in place of fuel, Obinna Ezendu, a
committed young inventor has achieved a milestone on the way to addressing
the persistent energy crisis in Nigeria. He invented a fuel efficiency tank,
which he calls "Obitank" . The tank increases the fuel utilization
four times than the normal fuel consumption rate. “This
means that if you normally use a gallon of fuel for just five hours, be sure to
use the same amount of fuel for 15 to 20 hours on the same generator. "Yes!
This is a proven fact as I have successfully built and tested it,” Ezendu informed Rising Africa, an online
Newspaper in its edition of 3rd January, 2016, The structure of the tank
consists of the fuel reservoir and the combustion chamber. The secret is that
the device consumes the fuel in a gaseous form, that is the fuel in liquid form
vaporizes into gaseous form or vapor, which flows straight through into the
pipes to the combustion chamber; it allows the available fuel to last longer than
that it is supposed to. Moreover, the taps on the fuel reservoir makes it
possible to adjust the amount of the fuel vapour flowing into the chamber.
Ezendu provided
advantages of his invention “The three good things associated with this
innovation are: 1. you will save a lot of money on the amount of fuel you
ordinarily require to run your business or house effectively; 2. you will help
to save our environment, because due to the method of combustion, the
engine emits very little amount of carbon; 3. your engine will not require
frequent servicing or scrapping of carbon in the piston areas,”.
In the
medical and pharmaceutical arena, Nigerians are similarly excelling especially
those living overseas. In this category, we have notable personalities like
Yemi Adesokan, Aloysius Anaebonam, Emeka Nchekwube among others. Adesokan, an
United state based Nigerian was selected by experts judges of the Technology
Review of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States
of America for his discovery work on drug resistant infections. He was
deservedly honoured by MIT in 2011 for his innovative work. Medical experts are
of the opinion that this highly rated innovation may bring an end to the
problem of drug resistance in the World particularly in the African continent.
professor Anaebonam is another United State based Nigerian. He is first degree
graduate of the University of Nigeria Nsukka and a holder of MSc and PhD in
Industrial Pharmacy from Massachusetts
College of Pharmacy, Boston, Massachusetts. He is a developer and marketer of
advanced cosmetics treatment products and skin related ailments. He is refuted to have earned at least 12
United States Patents in Pharmaceutical and medical arena. Details of his
inventions can be accessed via;
http://nlipw.com/in-wipo-day-10-nigeria-inventors/. Yet another personality, Emeka
Nchekwube, Lagos - born Nigerian also living in the USA. After obtaining the
necessary medical qualifications in Nigeria and USA, He became a board
certified Neurosurgeon by American Board of Neurological Surgeons, member of
American Medical Association and other professional bodies. He is dully
credited with at least four inventions, which were patented by the United
States of America. Among the patented inventions of Emeka were Hypoestoxides,
derivatives and agonists for use as stent-coating agents (Us patent no.
7229979) and another Hypoestoxides use for antiparasitic agents (Us patent no.
6242484) click for the newspaper version- (to be concluded next week)
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