RMRDC- PIONEERING GREEN TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION IN NIGERIA

Years of resistance to the reality of climatic changes: rising earth’s temperature (put between 0.5 to 1 degree Fahrenheit), accelerated melting of both Greenland and Antarctic ice caps with virtual collapse in mountain glaciers around the globe, and the moving of the “doomsday clock” by Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, by two minutes closer to midnight, is fast disappearing like the soon-to-be-history snows of Kilimanjaro. Recently, there have been calls by world powers for the enactment of laws by governments to achieve significant reductions of greenhouse emissions.  

The Kyoto protocol makes it more acceptable by providing the possibility for the emergence of more than 1,500 projects since the enforcement of the treaty began 2 years ago. While fast growing economies including India, Brazil and China are cashing in on this boon, representing 80 percent of the total number, Africa lags behind with just 1.6 per cent, most coming from Egypt and South Africa. Recall also that Africa is most prone to the catastrophic spell of rising world temperature and the problem of an undeveloped industrial sector that can ill afford to cut down on its industrial emissions.

The United States even projects to gain from the booming, emerging, green trade which could reach $100 billion by 2050 with a lot depending on the ability of governments to carry on with the principles of the Kyoto treaty beyond 2012 when it expires. It is already beating a part through this unfamiliar, yet lucrative path. The new mandate handed down to an indigenous energy company, Vera Sun Energy, by the Bush Administration is to ‘sharply’ raise it’s ethanol production output by 3 times to 670 million gallons per annum for the next 10 years to 35 billion gallons with a promise of government subvention.

Coming down to South Africa, all is set to fire up a boiler that was recently converted to biomass energy from coal to recover about 27 Rands ($3.7million) worth  investment under the new world order. The mandate to raise ethanol production and use as alternative renewable fuel and save the world’s climate, now occupies the front burners. 

In Nigeria, given a forward looking government, one must confess, no doubt, that focus and efforts are being primed by the above scenario. However, with majority of its population relying heavily on agriculture for economic survival, a surplus rural poor, an undeveloped industrial sector, it is extremely difficult for government to devise strategies for global competitiveness. Given the several contending issues ranging from social, economic, even to the political, the basic concerns here have not exceeded the consideration of creating a basic, viable, economic environment to eradicate   poverty at the grass root. Meeting the challenges of global competitiveness in respect of the above sited situation therefore becomes an esoteric venture. 

Paradise lost? Not at all! Paradise is regained when we ponder on the steps currently being taken in the country to address the issue of global warming and the search for green technology innovations to replace the old fossil fuel influenced technology. Daily, our scientists are confronted with the realities of a globe in technological transition. Today, technology is in motion and throwing up challenges which has the nation’s research institutions and Universities nationwide, including the Organized Private Sector in a quest to match up, and achieving it. 

From a historic perspective, there is nothing new in green technology. World over, and including Nigeria, alcohol, or ethanol (you call it.), makes excellent motor fuel. The reason alcohol has not been fully explored is that until now, gasoline has come cheap, available and easy to produce. The process by which ethanol can be produced are diverse. Synthetic alcohol may be derived from crude oil or gas and coal. Agricultural alcohol may be distilled from grains, molasses, fruits, sugar cane juice, cellulose and numerous other sources. This is so even as fuel alcohol could either be used in blends, as in gasohol or in pure form. At the last analysis, only Brazil uses ethanol as 100% substitute for gasoline.  

Nigeria represents one of the most interesting import markets in Africa. It stopped producing ethanol in 2001 after cheap world market import and a difficult domestic feed stock situation had undermined the viability of the domestic sector. The total market volume in Nigeria foe fuel ethanol is estimated at about 90 million litres, the largest part of which is supplied by South Africa, Brazil and Spain. Presently NOSAK Agencies9ies Ltd is planning to build an alcohol plant in Lagos with a capacity for 150 tonnes of molasses a day, which implies a production capacity of 10.9 billion litres per day. 

Need we say that there is a growing consensus that fuel ethanol could serve a multitude of goals that are socially desirable, but is invariably more expensive to produce than gasoline? This perhaps explains why government has begun to thinker with some policies to subsidize research efforts to make ethanol production more attractive. 

Happily enough, available statistics put Nigeria in a good stead for the development and utilization of fuel ethanol in Nigeria. With an average production capacity of about 36 million metric tones worth of cassava, which could yield about 3.6 billion litres of fuel ethanol; (30% of the annual national gasoline consumption of 10.9 billion litres), the development of fuel technology has already occupied the front burners of consideration among several key government agencies in the country.  

 The Raw materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), a Federal Government Parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology came into limelight as a child of circumstances. Established to salve the yearnings of the industrial sector for a one-stop raw materials provider institution, RMRDC has quickly filled into a predestined profile of relevance and importance by providing the bridge between the industrial sector, research institutions in Nigeria, and the Organized Private Sector. Today, RMRDC could be seen as the missing link in the entire scheme. This profile is further suggested by the enormous concentration of its establishing functions and mandates which places premium on research coordination, information generation and dissemination. 

Still, within the purview of a radically changing world, the questions could still be asked whether RMRDC is actually stimulating industrialization and economic development in the country through its programmes and activities. Has it been able, through its programmes, to usher in development through inventions, wipe out unemployment by creating ventures based on scientific innovations, and to bring about more technological breakthroughs scientific innovations and inventios?  

The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of RMRDC, Engr. (Prof) Onwualu, in a recently published newspaper article, says that the council had refocused and was taking the fight for economic and industrial rebirth beyond its primary mandate of merely taking stock of raw materials availability in the country. He says that the Council, challenged as it was to tackle the issues of globalization, operates with a mission to deliver technology that is pro-poor, affordable, adaptable, environmentally friendly, cost effective and compatible with the major economic activities of the people. This, in his assessment, translates to the development of an environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and people-compatible technology, which the RMRDC, in consonance with other stakeholders, have a sworn commitment to deliver,

From established records, it is also gladdening to note the pioneering effort of RMRDC to establish green projects ahead of government initiative on global warming. It’s involvement in the development of fuel - source technologies for sustainable industrial growth and environmental protection and preservation, should be seen in both pioneering and contemporary terms, as yet a step in the right direction. After signing an MOU with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the Jigawa state Government for large scale cultivation of sugar cane to boost the local production of fuel ethanol, RMRDC is merely creating opportunities in the energy sector and building a most needed technological base on both indigenous and turnkey basis. A total of 29,000 filling stations nationwide are already outfitted and primed to dispense ethanol fuel when the project takes off. 

RMRDC is furthering this course through a partnership with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi for the design and fabrication of a manually operated and motorized briquetting machine for wood and agricultural wastes. The project which seeks to reduce dependence on fuel wood and fight desertification is ready for divestment based on proven viability. RMRDC is also already discussing with UNIDO for the proliferation of this technology with a view to attracting investment to the project.

 RMRDC is also developing a technology to briquette the Typha grass of the Hadejia-Jama’are wetlands. Under this project, the Typha grass, an invasive grass, growing rapidly and taking over farmlands, fishing ponds, canals, reservoirs in Hadejia and Nguru, Yobe State, will be briquetted into fuel pellets for local use and export using technology from neighboring Mali. 

There is also the collaboration between the RMRDC and Nakruda for the development and extraction of oils from neem seeds and the Jatraopha curca 1 standard species plant. The collaboration which has the Council, the Gombe state University and NAKRUDA, a community based organization, teeming up, tells of efforts being made to produce small scale local biodiesel oils from these plants. Details of this project include harvesting of the Jatropha from the Dadiya Hill, including castor oils, and shea butter, planting of Jatropha curcas seeds obtained, by the Council, fro India for comparative oil production, purchasing and testing of oil pressing machine for small scale use, laboratory analysis of oils, development of small scale extraction process and equipment, and fabrication of pilot equipment, including trial testing of final product. 

In the final analysis, while simple conservation ideas like reducing waste by recycling and consuming less, driving less, or just turning off electronics when not in use, are quite simplistic and could be adhered to in the bid to protect our planet, the approach by different governments will require, to a great extent, the adaptability and innovativeness of simplistic, adaptive, and affordable technologies  which go beyond official rhetoric and do not vary far too much from that already being undertaking by RMRDC. It is therefore clear that RMRDC- through alliances with the private sector and the other strategic stakeholders- has emerged a leader in contemporary efforts being channeled towards developing technologies aimed at reducing the effects of global warming and saving  the world.  

                                                                                                                                 Chucks Ngaha