Biofuels Production in Nigeria: The Policy and Public Opinions

Abstract

<p>In order to reduce the country’s over dependence on oil and gas economy and establish a strong link between the downstream petroleum industry and agricultural activities, the Nigerian government has recently indicated commitment to biofuels production from local feedstock. Emphasis was given to bioethanol and biodiesel with projected annual local market possibility of 5.04 billion and 900 million Liters respectively. The study reports an over view of the biofuels policy and a survey of the public opinions on the potential impacts of its implementation. A questionnaire containing six research questions, covering the key positive and negative impacts of commercial biofuels production was designed in line with the policy objectives. 200 samples were randomly distributed to people with good biofuels education across the country, within 90 days. The recovered questionnaires (PQR = 92.50 %) were treated statistically. Additional respondents’ comments were also captured and analysed. 97.30 % of the respondents expressed optimism in terms of positive impacts such as generation of revenue to the government, investments, jobs creation, energy access to rural areas and environmental sustainability. However, the remaining respondents with percentage cumulative response (PCR) of 2.7 % showed that negative consequences such as food price hike, soil degradation and diversion of food land would be the net result due to high level of corruption, poor technology and lack of transportation network. To achieve the policy objectives, appropriate planning is required. Research covering the views of all stake holders and lessons from prior countries like Brazil and India would be very important. Emphasis should be given to pre-exploited agricultural land and non-food crops that are adaptive to current and foreseeable climatic conditions in Nigeria.</p

Preparation and characterization of protein isolate and biodiesel from garden cress seed

“…As shown in Table 5, the biodiesel yield from garden cress oil was 90%. This was similar to those reported by Galadima et al, [66]; Kywe and Myao, [67]. The results of quality assessment tests performed on the biodiesel obtained from garden cress oil revealed that most of the fuel specifications comply with ASTM (American Society for Testing Materials) D 6751 requirements (Table 5).…”

Current Status and Future Prospects of Renewable Energy Use in Turkey

“…A detailed description of objective, anticipated benefits and investment incentives can be found in Ref. [105].…”

Effects of biofuel production on selected local Communities in Nigeria

“…Similar study by Galadima et al (2011) on a countrywide-scale in Nigeria, recollected 185 questionnaires, while Acheampong and Campion (2014) in a study of eleven communities in Ghana recollected 234.…”

“…A predesigned questionnaire, with summarized questions on the most likely effects of biofuel production was randomly administered to cover 70% of the sample populations. Responses were categorized into "agree", "disagree", and "undecided" using the modified approach by Galadima et al (2011); and further assigned numerical codes equal to the frequency of occurrence of each of the categories (Acheampong and Campion, 2014).…”

“…The issues and concerns about biofuel production from the Nigerian public standpoint draw from the conception that biofuel production will lead to the substitution of food for fuel and agricultural land for fuels (Galadima et al, 2011). Generally, in the sub-Saharan Africa, the pitfalls of biofuel expansion, as exposed in many studies Von Maltitz et al, 2010;Schoneveld et al, 2010) include, the potential social problems due to the poor land tenure security of local communities; concerns around deforestation and biodiversity loss; and, the low overall development benefits.…”