NIGERIA’S ENERGY CHALLENGE AND POWER DEVELOPMENT: THE WAY FORWARD

The ever increasing demand and meager supply of energy in Nigeria has been a great challenge to her development. This situation is becoming critical, with increasing population not balanced by an adequate energy development programme. The incessant power generation failure has grossly affected the economy, seriously slowing down development in rural and sub-rural settlements, with present energy policy mainly benefiting urban dwellers. Globally, energy projections stipulate that between 2002 and 2025, global energy needs may rise by over 34%, with that of developing nations doubling this percentage. A robust solution must be found to end the nation’s energy crises. This Viewpoint compares the energy potential of Nigeria with the challenges faced. Nigeria receives a huge amount of solar radiation, has abundant wind energy resources, and large deposits of fossil fuel, as well as enormous hydro-power resources from Niger and Benue Rivers. However, of these about 80% of hydro-power remains untapped, the total 5.5KW-hr/m2/day of solar radiation is not utilized and wind energy resources remain unexploited. The solution lies in creating a mixed supply of energy in which as yet untapped renewable resources are combined with abundant nonrenewable fossil fuel, including the massive quantities of gas wasted from crude oil exploitation

Computer Aided Plumbing Design

This study has been used to eliminate the rigorous activities and time consuming mathematical analysis involved in Plumbing design. The various mathematical steps employed in the design of plumbing systems has been converted into easily interpreted hand user computer program that can be used to generate automatically all the various parameters needed for full design work, when the input data such as head available, various number of fittings, actual length of pipe run and assumed pipe diameter are provided. This has been used to provide a pathway to easy plumbing desig

Dynamic Modeling and Analysis of Inverted Pendulum using Lagrangian-Differential Transform Method

There has been an increase in application of pendulum in robotics which is applicable in Medicine, Agriculture, Military, Industries Explorations and Entertainment. Many Researchers have shown interest in inverted pendulum stability and control in recent years. This study is concerned with the development of equation of motion of inverted pendulum and its analysis by adopting the Lagrangian and Differential Transform Method (DTM) respectively. The resulting equations were solved analytically. Results obtained are consistent with the ones in the literatur

Energy Pricing Policy and Environmental Quality in Nigeria: A Dynamic Computable General Equilibrium Approach

The fuel subsidy policy as a policy had been argued to hamper efforts at environmental sustainability. Thus, this study investigates the extent to which the removal of fuel subsidy influences the level of carbon emissions in Nigeria over a 5 year period. It adopts the recursive dynamic version of the partnership for economic policy computable general equilibrium model based on the 2006 Nigerian social accounting matrix. Simulating a partial, gradual and complete removal of import tariff on imported petrol indicates reduction of emissions only when subsidy removal was partial. Findings from the results showed carbon emissions marginally increased under the gradual and one shot removal. This suggests that removing petrol subsidy was not sufficient to reduce carbon emissions level, but should be accompanied with necessary supporting policies. Fuel blending can be a useful alternative to fossil fuel along with renewable energy and green growth practices to ensure a low-carbon growth strategy

A Simulation of the Removal of Fuel Subsidy and the Performance of the Agricultural Sector in Nigeria using a Dynamic Computable General Equilibrium Approach

This study analysed the response of the agricultural sector to the removal of subsidy on refined petroleum in Nigeria, given its strategic role as a critical sector. Using a dynamic energy-environment CGE model based on the 2006 Nigerian Social Accounting Matrix (SAM), the study presents the results of the response of the agricultural sector to three different simulation scenarios. These include a partial (50 percent), gradual and a one shot (complete) removal of subsidy on imported refined oil in Nigeria. The results provided evidence that a complete or one shot removal of fuel subsidy is more favourable in terms of better performance of the agricultural sector as many of the key macroeconomic variables increased under the complete removal simulation scenario. It is recommended that a one shot removal of fuel subsidy will strengthen the agricultural sector performance and outputs, even though prices will move up in the short term. The long term benefits to the sector when funds are allocated to infrastructural and technological development will support overall growth and enhance food security in Nigeria. Â

Modeling and Analysis of Fouling Behaviour in Plate and Frame Heat Exchanger

The fouling of heat exchangers in the oil and gas industry is not only a recurring challenge in refineries but it is also becoming a challenge in crude oil production and treatment facilities where heat exchangers are deployed to cool the crude oil temperature downstream of stabilization system prior to storage. A predictive mitigation approach to addressing fouling in heat exchangers remains the most viable option to avoid production train capacity limitations, unplanned shutdown and attendant loss of revenue. Considerable researches have been carried out which lead to the development of models used for predicting fouling resistances in shell and tube heat exchangers. However, this study focused on evaluation of the performance of a plate and frame heat exchanger utilized in cooling of crude oil prior to storage in a cargo tank for export. It also developed a fouling resistance suitable for forecasting the exchanger performance and predicting the maintenance management scheme. The data employed were continuously measured for three years and employed for the analysis.  It found that the lower the hot stream approach temperature, the more the fouling resistance. In addition, the work validates that as the fouling resistance increases with time, the efficiency of the plate and frame heat exchanger diminishes

Odontogenic tumors in Nigerian children and adolescents- a retrospective study of 92 cases

BACKGROUND: Tumours arising from odontogenic tissues are rare and constitute a heterogenous group of interesting lesions. The aim of this study was to determine the relative frequency of odontogenic tumors (OT) among Nigerian children and adolescents 19 years or younger. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The histopathology records were retrospectively reviewed for all the tumors and tumor-like lesions of the oral cavity and the jaws seen in children and adolescents ≤ 19 years seen between January 1980 and December 2003. Hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections were re-evaluated and the diagnosis in each case was confirmed or modified according to World Health Organization (WHO) classification, 1992; and were subjected to analysis of age, sex, site of tumor and histopathologic type. RESULTS: A total of 477 tumors and tumor-like lesions were seen in patients ≤ 19 years during the period of the study. Of these, 92 (19.3%) were odontogenic tumors. Benign odontogenic tumors constituted 98.9% of the cases seen, while only 1 case (1.1%) of malignant variety was seen during the period. The mean (SD) age of patients was 14.9 (± 3.1) years (range, 4–19 years). Male-to-female ratio was 1:1; and mandible-to-maxilla ratio was 2.7:1. OT's were most frequently seen in patients aged 16–19 years (46.7%) and the least number (2.2%) were found in patients aged 0–5 years. Among nine histologic types of OT seen, ameloblastoma (48.9%), adenomatoid odontogenic tumor (19.6%) and odontogenic myxoma (8.7%) were predominant. Multicystic/solid and unicystic variants of ameloblastoma were diagnosed in 40 (89%) and 5 (11%) cases respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Odontogenic tumors are relatively common in children and adolescents in Nigeria. One out of every 5 children and adolescents with tumors and tumor-like lesions of oral cavity and the jaws seen in this study had a diagnosis of odontogenic tumor

Fuel Subsidy Reform and Environmental Quality in Nigeria

The study examines the existence of a long run effect of fuel subsidy reform on environmental quality in Nigeria for the period of 1970-2012 using the Johansen and the Engle-Granger two step co-integration procedure techniques. The study developed a three case scenarios including i) a case of subsidy payment, ii) a case of effective subsidy and, iii) a case of no subsidy payment. Findings from the study supported evidence of a long run sustainable equilibrium model. Also, our estimation results showed that the first and the last case scenario do not significantly influence environmental quality. This implies that subsidy payment in Nigeria does not enhance access and consumption of liquid fuel. On the other hand, the interaction of sound regulatory framework with subsidy payment (the case of effective subsidy) significantly exerts a responsive influence on environmental quality