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From Felix Ikem, Nsukka
The Director, Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development (ACE-SPED) at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Prof Emenike Ejiogu, has said the centre’s Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) Gasification Plant has the capacity to end inadequate electricity supply in the country with adequate funding.
Ejiogu disclosed this to newsmen in Nsukka on Monday after returning from Abuja, the nation’s capital, where he had gone to represent his centre for the launching of Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) Alliance (an association of all the 20 Africa centres of excellence in Nigeria).
He explained that the centre had invented a locally fabricated RDF gasification plant, a waste-to-energy facility that converts processed municipal solid waste (MSW) into a fuel, then uses a gasification process to create a syngas.
According to him, the syngas can then be used to produce electricity and heat, stating that the process involves pre-treating waste to remove non-combustible materials, and then feeding the remaining combustible fraction into a gasifier where it is converted into a fuel gas through a high-temperature thermochemical process.
“I can categorically say that we have developed a waste-to-energy conversion system that can be a basis for a mini grid system all over Nigeria to supply uninterrupted electricity needs if given adequate funding.
“We have the whole value chain for the system ready. We have studied the quantity of waste available, prepared a prototype of how to convert the waste to solid fuel in briquettes, and then convert the briquettes to gas and used it to produce energy.
“We have gone beyond the core mandate of the centre which is to do teaching and research in energy and energy-related areas to produce the prototype of 100KVA and 500KVA RDF gasification plant, demonstrate it, and prove that it can work.
“So, the practicality of it is beyond what you expect a research centre to do, because what we did is to carry out research, produce the prototype of the RDF gasification plant and demonstrate the system, therefore if we need the system to run continuously we need fund to produce many of plant and logistics to be correcting and processing the waste,” he said.
According to him, the waste gasification plant has the capacity to generate and distribute power within the area of installation, adding that overdependence on the national grid for electricity supply which has not been steady without an alternative energy system has grossly affected efforts to achieve a steady power supply in the country.
The director explained further that the power generated from the organic wastes would form part of the energy mix in the country.
He recalled that two serving ministers had visited the university to see and inspect how the gasification plant worked, and they were all satisfied with what they saw.
“In past years the Minister of State for Power, Mr Goddy Agba and his counterpart in the Ministry of Science and Technology late Dr Ogbonnaya Onu visited UNN on separate occasions to inspect the plant.
“They were both satisfied after we demonstrated to them how the plant functions, and they promised that they would present it for discussion at the national executive council meeting for support,” he said.
He said that other power sources like the national grid, solar will be there, but the refuse-derived-fuel gasification plant will provide an energy mix which would be cheaper, more reliable and beneficial.
“Federal, State, local government or business organisation that wants to test our credibility should use one big housing estate as a pilot project and see that our gasification plant has the capacity to provide 24-hour electricity supply.”
The director disclosed that on 3 November 2025 when the Federal Government through the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa unveiled the Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) in Abuja and their comprehensive compendium of their achievements,
The centre’s RDF gasification plant was among main research products exhibited and demonstrated before the minister and guests who attended that unveiling.
