Dollars from the Dustbin. (by Ifeoma Comfort Ndefo)

Nigeria is a country blessed with rich natural and material resources. Imagine that even the waste products generated from the enormous human activity of a population of over 160 million people could be used to generate electricity, create jobs and wealth; using the Biogas  technology.

Picture of Refuse Dump by Ifeoma Ndefo

 In a seminar recently organized by the Environmental Biotechnology Department of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), a Nigerian expert on Biogas, living in the USA, Dr Felix Afumuzo Ukponu, President and CEO of Hermesmann L.L.C, USA, explained that Biogas is one of today’s cheapest and safest renewable energies. It is produced from plants, animals, and human waste. Substrates from refuse dumps are important raw materials for the production of electricity, useful for small generator fuels and cooking gas at exceedingly low prices.

According to Ukponu, Biogas is a mixture of sixty percent methane and about 30-40% carbon-dioxide. It contains about 60% methane that can be used to generate electricity or used for heat or for fuel for vehicles. Any animal manure, human sewage or food waste will produce methane during anaerobic digestion.
Biogas can be "cleaned" to yield purified methane that can be used in the natural gas pipelines. Methane from biogas is an excellent alternative energy source. Using methane for energy helps the environment by replacing the use of non-renewable fossil fuels with renewable energy and by taking the methane out of the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas that has 21 times the
heating effect as carbon dioxide. Biogas methane is renewable unlike natural gas which is mined from underground wells and is a non-renewable fossil fuel.

As world economic powers shift the pendulum of global oil business from fossil fuel to more environmentally friendly alternatives like Biogas, major oil dependent economies like Nigeria are faced with the challenge to restrategise to evolve new energy forms and sources that offer comparative and competitive advantages.

Dr Afumuzo Ukponu , reiterated that agricultural products like corn serves as veritable raw materials for the process. He also added that the enormous wastes littering and polluting our environment are potential raw materials for Biogas, capable of creating plum jobs for numerous unemployed youths in Nigeria.

In her response, the Director- General, NABDA, Prof (Mrs.) Lucy J. Ogbadu, described the Biogas technology as simple and applicable within the Agency. She stated that

inspite of the prospect of supplying environmentally friendly electricity for NABDA and surrounding communities; the Biogas project would provide the much needed technology transfer and capacity building for young NABDA scientific officers. She therefore, affirmed NABDA’s interest in collaborating with Hermesmann L.L.C, USA on the Biogas project.