Don suggests “defusinization” concept for smokeless coal production

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February 23, 2017 3:15 PM

The don made the claim in the university’s newsletter, which was given to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Thursday.

Prof. Nuhu Obaje, a geologist at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger, has propounded

The don made the claim in the university’s newsletter, which was given to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Thursday.

The publication said that Obaje, the Director of the university’s Centre for Applied Sciences and Technology Research (CASTER), propounded the theory when he presented an interim report on a coal research.

“This new concept was as a result of some preliminary discussions with scientists at Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mukheim, Germany, and Federal Institute for Geoscience in Hannover, also in Germany."

“The assessment of some Nigerian coal deposits as raw materials for the production of a new brand of smokeless fuel was sponsored by Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund),’’ he said.

Obaje said that the concept was based on studies on coal carbonisation by some geologists in the early 1960s.

“It was discovered that during the carbonisation process, coal softens, fuses and re-solidifies to form the carbon-rich material known as Coke,’’ he said.

He said that the “defunisation’’ experiment was carried out with field mapping and sampling in Kudu in Niger, Okaba Omelehu, Ogbyaga in Kogi and Owukpa in Benue as well as Lafia Obi in Nasarawa State.

The newsletter stated that the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Muhammad Maiturare, who expressed delight at the research finding, sought to know the implications of coal conversion for general usage.

Maiturare was quoted as saying that ‘‘other departments should emulate the Department of Geology by carrying out researches that will be beneficial to the university and the nation at large.’’

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