Engineers seek to generate power from wastes

The Guardian reports that this was contained in a communiqué by the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), at the end of the African Engineering conference on energy held last week in Uyo, Akwa Ibom.

According to The Guardian, the NSE’s President, Otis Anyaeji, said in Abuja yesterday that Africa is presently challenged by dwindling fossil fuel sources and growing concerns about climate change.

He added that the issues of effective waste disposal technique and pollution control were other challenges.According to him, the country’s energy generation capacity is grossly inadequate at a per capital generation rate of approximately 23.6Watts.

He said there was also a municipal solid waste load of about 40,959 tonnes per day, which is projected to reach about 101,307 tonnes per day by 2025 based on World Bank estimate in 2012.

He said generating energy from wastes was a great potential that the country was yet to develop.

The communiqué stated that there was an urgent need for the African continent to put in place policies, institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks for the development of waste-to-energy, with the incentives that would encourage research and investment.

“Governments in conjunction with the private sectors should implement the installation of biomass gasifier plants and some small-sized rotary dryers for the provision of reliable heating.

“This would facilitate their drying and provide electricity for rural enterprises thus increasing the income generated by the rural communities,” the communiqué added.