Nigerian scientists have developed and patented a technology known as bio-digester which is used for the conversion of bio-degradable waste products into cooking gas and electricity.
This was made known by Prof. Alex Akpa, the Director-General of National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Thursday in Abuja.
Akpa said the technology which was the first of its kind in Nigeria and Africa, was developed by Environmental Bio-tech department of the NABDA, which was why it had to be patented.
“Bio-digesters are huge things that look like big pots and inside them we throw in biodegradable items like remnants of food, soup, vegetable cuttings, yam peels, plantain peels, onions and anything biodegradable.
“We throw them into this huge bio-digester and of course, microorganisms are usually introduced and within a few days it starts having gas, boil gas, which can be used directly to cook.
“All we do is pass it through a small system that dries, removes all the water vapour and gets straight to your burner and you can cook with it,’’ he said.
Akpa further disclosed that it could also be used to generate electricity and that there were generators specially designed to run on gas.
“If you can channel that gas to such generators, you can generate power enough for the family and even a whole market,’’ the D-G said.
According to him, that is why it comes in 250 litres, 500 litres and 1,000 litres and there is capacity to take up to 5,000 or 10,000 litres.
Akpa said the small one, of 250-litre bio-digester, could be used by families where it could be kept close to the kitchen.
“Being close to the kitchen, all biodegradable wastes can then be thrown in and the gas channelled back and used to cook for the whole family,’’ he noted.
He also said that the bigger ones of 500 litres and 1000 litres could be used in restaurants, hotels while the very gigantic ones could be used at market places.
“In this way, lots of the biodegradable wastes are converted to gas and electricity generation for the market.
“So you can see these are technologies that are done by scientists here and the patents are being obtained for these technologies,’’ he said.
Akpa said apart from that, scientists at the NABDA had also developed a bio-methane analyser.
According to him, this analyser is able to take different types of bio degradable waste and estimate, in advance, the amount of gas that can be gotten from a particular combination of bio degradables.
He said that by implication one could easily ascertain the amount of energy and power that could be generated from a particular mix of biodegradable wastes.
He emphasised that the “technology has been developed here and also been patented.
“So, these are the type of things we have done and we are still doing,’’ he added.(NAN)
