Expert Harps On Energy Research

A chemist, Mr Ndukwe Osogho-Ajala, has  stressed the need for practical researches to
exploit the nation’s abundant natural resources for sufficient energy
availability.

Osogho-Ajala, made the call in a paper he presented, during
the ongoing 35th Annual International Conference of the Chemical Society of
Nigeria (CSN) in Owerri.

The paper was titled, “Chemistry: Challenges in the Present
and Future Alternative Energy Technology”.

Osogho-Ajala, who is the managing director of Soulmate
Industries Limited in Lagos, explained that the economic development of most
developing nations was currently constrained by energy availability and supply.

He said the challenge was to expand energy supply in a way
that was safe, affordable and environmentally-friendly.

He said that the challenge had inspired many scientists to
find alternative energy sources that would reduce the present problems brought
about by the consumption of fossil fuels.

“Presently, renewable energy sources only provide us with
small amounts of energy and much investment is required to increase the amount
of energy produced in this more natural way,” he said.

Osogho-Ajala pointed out that all the main forms of
renewable energy production depended on chemical reactions and that their
improvements would require innovations in chemistry.

“Some renewable energy sources require combustion to be
harnessed. Combustion conditions determine how well combustion takes place and
this is a large and challenging area of research,” he said, noting  that burning of fossil fuels posed a danger
to mankind.

According to him, chemistry has a lot to contribute to both
the energy-poor and energy-abundant worlds with solutions that involve cleaner
energy productions, efficient electricity storage and transforming today’s
waste into tomorrow’s energy source.

“Despite the abundance of energy resources in the world,
some countries are short of energy supply. Hence, we should be thinking of how
to produce alternative energy sources,” he said.

Osogho-Ajala described renewable energy as energy from
natural resources, such as sunlight, wind, rain, geothermal resources, biomass,
plants and animal extracts.

He identified some of the challenges of renewable energy to
include scalability and timing, commercialisation, material input requirement,
intermittency and substitutability.

Osogho-Ajala observed
that unlike fossil fuels, alternative energy depended heavily on
specially engineered equipment and infrastructure for conversion, making it a
high-tech manufacture.