The National Gas Expansion Project Committee (NGEPC) has toured the facilities of the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT), Zaria, as a precursor to a collaboration on the use of auto-gas as an alternative source of fuel. This tour issued from NITT’s desire to reduce carbon emissions through a collaborative effort as well as a futuristic plan for post-subsidy era.
In his opening remarks, the representative of the DG/CE and Chairman, NITT’s Auto-gas Committee, Dr. Joshua Odeleye, stated that as a critical stakeholder in the transport and logistics sector, the Institute wanted to establish a “standardised state-of-the-art auto gas conversion workshop.” This, he said, was borne out of the desire to “reduce the carbon level being generated by transportation.”
To be able to”create a flexible, smart and digitalised auto gas conversion system”, NITT sought to partner with the National Gas Expansion Project (NGEP). Dr. Odeleye further noted that the collaboration would be across the entire auto gas value chain to ensure the optimisation of auto gas opportunities.
He revealed that NITT had entered into quite a number of mutually beneficial partnerships: Ahmadu Bello University, Multimix Academy, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Institute of Transport Studies, University of Leeds, Institute of Mobility Transport, Bassett, University of Belgium, Universiti Teknologi, Malaysia, to mention, but a few. He further stated that currently, NITT was collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to train thousands of Nigerian youths on the N-build and N-tech programmes.
Dr. Joshua Odeleye’s counterpart and Chairman, Nigerian Gas Expansion Project Committee (NGEPC), Dr. Mohammed. M. Ibrahim, stated that since its establishment in 2020, the Nigerian Gas Expansion Project (NGEP) had been working assiduously to solve the perennial and seemingly insurmountable problems of fuel subsidy and lack of energy. Ironically, he observed, “one molecule of gas will solve the two problems.” He further stated that “Nigeria is an ocean of gas with a drop of oil” as there’s hardly “any part of Nigeria where you don’t have massive deposit of gas.” He also asserted that the”natural gas is the easiest form of energy you can tap, process, use within the shortest possible time.”
Dr. Ibrahim revealed that gas was not only easy to process, but also cheap. He cited the example of Benin City where about ten thousand vehicles were converted, and were running at one hundred and twenty five naira per standard cubic metre (equivalent of one hundred and twenty five naira per litre). According to him, “We’ve 21 states in the federation today that have CNG facilities; you can go in there, convert your vehicles and run on CNG at one hundred and twenty five naira.”
But dearth of technicians to drive the process necessitated the proposed synergy between NGEP and NITT. Dr. Ibrahim recognised the critically important role transportation would be playing in the natural gas project, and therefore sought to partner with NITT (a transport and logistics research and training Institute) for capacity building. In his words: “We needed to partner with NITT so that we can build capacity to train our people.”
The training programme would focus on equipping the trainees (mainly engineers and some interested graduates) with the requisite expertise in converting petrol engines to dual fuel ones. The training would consist of basic engineering principles, gas technology, conversion procedure, behaviour of molecules, and diagnosis. Upon graduation, the trainees would be given “starter packs.” Expectedly, they would become employers of labour.
