Federal Govt Plans Methanol Fuel Deployment In Automobile Industry

The federal government has intensified efforts to enable the deployment of methanol fuel in the automobile industry as part of measures to tackle climate change by reducing the GreenHouse Gases emission as well as job creation.

The permanent secretary  of the  Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation , Mrs Monilola Udoh made this known in her keynote remarks during a one-day stakeholders in-country capacity building workshop on the implementation  of the National Policy on Methanol fuel production, organised  by the ministry in collaboration  with GasTechno Nigeria in Abuja yesterday.

She noted that the introduction of the methanol fuel technology project became imperative in order to utilise Nigeria’s huge deposits of gas reserves, reduce gas flaring and environmental pollution. She added that the Ministry has engaged Gas Tecno Nigeria as consultants for the interface with the Automobile Industry component as part of the programme implementation.

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“This programme’s component is intended to increase Nigeria’s capacity to subsequently switch to methanol as a partial to a complete substitute for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in the transport sector and help to support Nigeria’s full-scale implementation documentation of emissions savings.

“The project focuses on management of methanol fuel retrofitted cars as well as comparative emission data generation, analysis and management,” she said.

She said further that “Methanol as a clean-burning fuel is gaining recognition globally as a viable alternative to fossil fuel, with Nigeria being one of the largest oil-producing nations and having the largest natural gas reserve in Africa. It is important that we explore alternative energy sources, and methanol fuel production is an excellent option into a greener economy.

Recall that Nigeria with some other countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2015 and the Agreement came into force in 2020.  This means that though Nigeria is a technologically bereft nation, staying on the trajectory of technology consumption will spell doom for the ever-growing country’s population with a growth rate at three per cent annually.

She said “Nigeria has committed herself to 47 per cent cut in global warming under the Nationally  Determined Contributions (NDC) in seven sectors namely oil and gas, energy, agriculture, water, transportation, industry and waste which are strategic to the nation’s continuous economic survival. With the implementation of various climate actions by nations, it will reduce the GreenHouse Gasses (GHG) emissions,” she said.

Also speaking, the director of Environmental Sciences and Technology in the Ministry, Dr. Peter Ekweozor, said that at the moment there is a blend of methanol (15 per cent) with PMS (five per cent), adding that with further research, Nigeria can produce 100 per cent methanol fuel that can power the automobile industry and help to create jobs for 40 million people in the next 2 years.