By: Abdulsalam Lukeman O. / Patience Aliede
The race is on to deploy Nigeria’s coal deposits to give the nation what has long eluded her: constant power. In the middle of the research is the Dean, School of Sciences, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai, Prof Nuhu Obaje. He shares the aim of the project and touches on other issues.
Q. You are currently undertaking a pioneer research geared towards ‘cleaning up’ coal. How is it coming along?
R. What we are doing, in the actual sense, is to provide scientific evidence that the coal which abounds in our country can be used – not just as a source of power – but properly and for a whole lot. We have conducted a research to know why the use of coal is declining and what we can do to prevent this, while making it more attractive to consumers. We need to understand that the use of coal has declined steadily, mainly due to carbon emission and adverse climate change. Our goal is to see to the things which make coal so foreboding to use and how we can promote the good sides, work on these negative aspects scientifically and get people to use them without the adverse effects.
This is what we are doing presently.
Q. With this breakthrough, your university, the IBB University Lapai, Niger State, will be blazing the trail in this area of research. Where is the research intended to be deployed?
R. I really was surprised when some people from the media turned up at my office to interview me. I didn’t know anyone had got the news about what we were doing. Next thing I knew, my attention was called to a headline in the papers, saying “IBB University to begin power generation from coal”. That is not the aim. Every research is meant to contribute to national and global development and reforms. The research is all experimentation; it is not an entrepreneurial project intended for commercial purposes. Researches are meant to be conducted and, if successful, deployed to a number of places where they can help solve problems and, in this case, must be based in the IBBU.
At this stage, we are so far from the coal. However, if, thanks to our research, we discover that coal can be better used for electricity generation in an environmentally sustainable manner, with its chemistry, mechanism, reactions, technological purposes and the rest of the aspects understood, it means that the Benue State government, the Federal Government, the Ministry of Power & Steel and, even, investors, can begin to think of using coal and building coal power plants. So, first, let the results be out, let people see these results and, then, investors can key in.
Q. Talking about investors now, what are the chances of the outcome of this research affecting the economy positively?
R. Every investor is in business to make profit and, for me; the biggest business in Nigeria is power. I have been talking with the vice-chancellor who has been supportive of all our work and he told me a few things about Zaria where he was. Over here in IBBU, we remain committed to our work and every other thing that can ensure it turns out well.
We are of the opinion that the government can decide to take energy as an agenda and, once it gets that right, every other sector will key in. Forget about employment; it will be automatically generated.
Power, as you know, is the key to development in any part of the world. Here [in Nigeria], we have issues with that and people will buy power anytime, anywhere. I am not saying people should not use gas or solar; I am saying there are opportunities in coal. For us in geology, we know what coal is as an ‘economic mineral’ and we know that economic minerals have their uses. All we have to do to increase its economic viability in this time and age is to discover its hidden values and how we can tweak these to be of more use to us than ever before.
Q. We know you have been working closely with the some German researchers on this research, but has this research been deployed somewhere else? Do you have a patent for it?
R. We have just concluded the basic scientific aspects and are moving to the pilot stage. What we have done is to open up the coal and, as you can see, we took the coal and measured a specific amount in our laboratory. We are dealing with a local environment, so we use local conditions (like the stove which many homes can afford) to take specific amounts of coal and water, in order to create an atmosphere which does not allow internal interruptions. When we take the coal, we take the same amount of kerosene to boil water and see which boils in more or shorter time. We discovered that they [the coal and kerosene] take different times to boil the same amount of water. Coal samples from a particular area take the same amount of time to get the job done – meaning that there are some characteristics they all share. We open up the coal, cut thin sections, conduct the petrographic tests under the microscope and discover that the one which was taking longer time possess certain substances called ‘inactinide’ in great quantities. We feel that must be the reason for the characteristics we have seen. Also, we created the condition for smoke perception – these are not established things, but local technology development, perceptions – by using cardboard to collect the smoke. You discover that the same one which was taking longer time to boil the water produced more smoke and combusts slowly, while the one with less inactinide produces less smoke and combusts faster. Now, even without going further (treating the coal and all that) we know that these kinds of coal – from Oukpa, Okaba – are energy-efficient, more productive, cook stuff faster and generate electricity. Having established that one is the better coal type, what do you do to the other type which has fuschinite [making it cook stuff slower]? Is it possible to remove the inactinide which prevents it from combusting faster? Since these are organic materials, only an organic acid can penetrate it and we have eight or 10 arrays of organic acids. We used these acids and discovered that some of the acids could help to reduce the amount of fuschinite/inactinide. Two acids were very effective in that regard. Now, if you have these acids which are effective, at what concentration [were they effective]? The issue is, at the industrial level, how much of the acid can you use? The research is ongoing, of course.
All these began with our collaboration with our German colleagues/partners. I was a Humboldt Fellow in Hannover, Germany, where their specialization is on coal and gas chemistry, so we discussed with them and got all kinds of inputs (research begins with assumptions before ideas begin to develop).
Q. You did say you were comparing coal and kerosene…
R. Yes.
Q. Has the comparison been made between coal and charcoal, for instance?
R. We have no business with charcoal. We are more concerned about coal. We are talking about coal, because, at an industrial level it can be used to generate electricity and put to a good number of uses. Also, at the domestic level, people are using coal.
Q. (Cuts in) That is the idea. If you compare the ratio of energy given off by both, if it is not so economical (for coal) people will continue to rely on charcoal…
R. You are correct, but the main aim here is to discourage them from using charcoal and give them an alternative, better form of energy. We need to conserve our forests and use the organic option, even if charcoal is the go-to option for most people.
Q. AshakaCem is run on coal-to-power technology. What are the differences/similarities between that and what you are doing?
R. What our research has shown is that the issues which make other coal types non-viable are far less in the coal-type we have in Nigeria.
We wrote a paper some time back and one of our readers replied us, stating that the quantities of in actinide in the coal samples from South Africa and Australia are far more than those of the Nigerian samples. He said: “if you think that in actinide is the problem, Australia is using its own coal for power generation and if have discovered that yours does not have as much in actinide as theirs, go ahead and use it directly.” He sent papers showing results for the amount of in actinide in the different coal samples. We assume, therefore, that, even without being processed, Nigerian coal is the best, safest for viable power generation.
Come to look at it, what is coal? It is formed from oil and gas matter that has accumulated over many years and this organic matter begin to degenerate. It is carbon. Anything which combusts has energy and contains carbon. Coal is carbon and so is oil and gas. The only difference is hydrogen. Already, there is a lot of energy inherent in the coal and, once you burn it, it gives off the energy.
Any company can mine the coal. What Ashaka Cement is doing is novelle. Why should I be in Benue State and still depend on the PHCN to give me power? Why can’t we have a power plant which uses coal in Benue or Kogi? Ashaka Cement was suffering from the epileptic power supply until they discovered that power was just lying next to them, unused, untapped. They did not build an electricity-generating plant, no; they used it in their quill to burn and have energy. People are using them at different levels to burn already and I think these should be encouraged. Also, I think industrial concerns can actually take advantage of coal deposits in Oukpa, Okaba and other surrounding areas.
If you have been to Ajaokuta before, just before you climb the Itobe Bridge, there are five huge companies there – most of them are Chinese. I asked them what they are doing in a village and they said they wanted to take advantage of the power supply, seeing as the pipe bringing gas from the South stops at Ajaokuta. Now, that pipe has not even reached Abuja. It is in a village in Ajaokuta and, just because of that gas supply, you have five companies holed up there, doing their thing. I got to wondering why they would not move near coal if they need the power/gas so much.
A man across the Itobe told me that the Zuma Company is mining coal, hoping to develop coal power (also in Ajaokuta) for briquetting. Basically, these are great ideas, but, even more importantly, they have to be followed to complete, positive fruition.
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