Abundant Catalyst Resources for Applications in the Nigerian Energy Sector: A Research Perspective

Abstract

Efficient energy supply represents one of the important indicators of a country’s readiness to provide fundamental amenities for its citizens. It similarly indicates the possibility of industrial growth associated with a nation of interest. In Nigeria today, energy supply is greatly insufficient and the government’s approach for handling the situation remained inefficient. Therefore, both scientific and policy based researches with focus on enhanced energy production are desirable for national interest. This specific manuscript targeted a discussion on how the abundant natural resources in Nigeria could be transformed into industry based catalysts and successfully applied for both biomass and fossil fuels valorization. It was successfully demonstrated herein that fly ash from coal processing, waste materials from cement manufacture, rock-based natural zeolites and many other industrial wastes could be converted into affordable catalysts for utilization in energy production via catalysis. Emphasis was also placed on the need for research intensification on catalyst development, characterization with advanced methods and evaluation at laboratory and industrial scales. This way, the challenges of energy production in Nigeria would be reduced effectively.