Research Article | OPEN ACCESS
The Challenge of Liquid Transportation Fuels in Nigeria and the Emergence of the Nigerian Automotive Biofuel Programme
Elijah I. Ohimain
Bioenergy and Environmental Biotechnology Research Unit, Biological Sciences Department, Faculty of Science, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Amassoma, Bayelsa State, Nigeria
Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology 2013 16:4058-4065
Received: December 30, 2011 | Accepted: February 17, 2012 | Published: April 30, 2013
Abstract
This study is aimed at assessing the challenge of liquid transportation fuel in Nigeria, which necessitated the entrance of the country into the biofuel race. The study found that despite being an important member of the organization of petroleum exporting countries (OPEC), Nigeria still suffers from fuel scarcities. Reasons for the short supply of refined petroleum products (particularly gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel) in Nigeria include poor capacity utilization of the nation’s refineries, disruption of crude oil supply to the refineries and political instability in the Niger Delta region (Nigeria’s oil province). Nigeria now relies heavily on foreign nations for the supply of these fuels. The country spends substantial part of her foreign exchange on fuel importation. The Federal Government now wishes to reverse this trend by initiating the automotive biofuel programme. The Nigerian automotive biofuel programme involved the construction of 9 plants comprising of 4 sugarcane and 2 cassava bioethanol projects and 3 biodiesel projects. These projects would involve the investment of $1.27 billion into the Nigerian economy for the production of 445 million L of ethanol, 192 MW of green electricity and 120 million L of biodiesel annually.
Keywords:
Automotive biofuel, biodiesel, bioethanol, bioenergy, environmental impacts, petroleum,
Competing interests
The authors have no competing interests.
Open Access Policy
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Copyright
The authors have no competing interests.
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ISSN (Online): 2040-7467
ISSN (Print): 2040-7459 |
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