Lagos, Nigeria | – Nigeria plans to build a 65 billion litres/year biofuel plant to boost supply of clean fuels in the country, state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said Wednesday.
NNPC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Southwest Ondo state government to build the project, which will use cassava as a feedstock.
NNPC group managing director Maikanti Baru said the ethanol produced from the plant will be blended with gasoline produced locally or imported by the NNPC to lower the sulphur content in the fuel.
“The benefits [of the project] include reduction of fuel import, reduction of greenhouse gas emission to combat global warming, and boost in the production of animal feeds from by-products of the plant,” Baru said.
Baru did not say when the project will take off or the cost, but said some private investors were involved in the project, which could create at least one million direct and indirect jobs.
Nigeria along with four other West African countries of Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana Togo agreed late in 2016 to ban imports of high-sulphur petroleum products as part of an initiative organized by the UN Environment Programme.
However, Nigeria has struggled to effect gasoline fuel specification change, which would see the sulphur content of up to 1,000 ppm dropped to 150 ppm, even though it previously fixed July 1, 2017, as the implementation date.
Platts.
