Browsing by Author "Ekpo, D. D."

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Design of a biomass power plant for a major commercial cluster in Ibadan, Nigeria
(2013-04) Diji, C. J.; Ekpo, D. D.; Adadu, C. A.
The Nigerian electricity supply industry is currently under reforms, due to inadequate power supply to meet basic needs. Current government policy favours the development of alternative and renewable energy options to meet the shortfalls in electricity supply. The paper presents a proposal for the establishment of a biomass power plant at the Sango plank market, a major commercial cluster in lbadan. Field studies showed that the plank market generates a biomass feed of sawdust and wood chips of 25, 000tonnes/year. The paper proposes the establishment of a 10MW direct combustion conversion process, biomass power plant at a capital investment of $1.77 million. Based on standard accounting practices, the generating cost of the plant was estimated at $0.56/kWh. Based on the Annual cost and present worth method the study also found the biomass plant more economical viable than using equivalent diesel generating plants. The study concludes by showing the economical and environmental benefits of setting up the biomass to the Sango community.
Environmental degradation and municipal solid waste management in Eket- Nigeria
(Pan African Book Company, 2012) Ekpo, D. D.; Diji, C.; Offiong, A.
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through the depletion of resources such as air, water, soil and the destruction of ecosystems. Waste management involves collection, transport, processing, recycling or disposal, and monitoring of waste materials. These methods include; Source reduction, recycling, incineration, composting, landfilling, anaerobic digestion. Four major markets were selected in Eket to ascertain the quantity and type of waste generated to proposed the method of waste management. Of the total waste generated, 82% of the solid waste originate from markets and households while about 18% are from commercial and institutional or industrial premises. Of the waste from markets and households, a substantial proportion consist of various putrescible materials, paper, metal, glass, textiles, rubber, leather, wood, vegetable, dust and sand. Anaerobic digester was designed to help in this scenario. Some equations were generated for the design. Some constraints in the management of waste in Eket and potential health hazard were critically analysed. Recommendations were made for the construction of the biogas plant.
Exergoenvironmental evaluation of a cement manufacturing process in Nigeria
(2013-07) Diji, C. J.; Ekpo, D. D.; Adadu, C. A.
The Cement manufacturing process is an energy intensive and environmentally impacting process. In this study, an exergoenvironmental evaluation is conducted on a wet process, gas - fired 1.3 million tone capacity cement plant in Nigeria, to assess the ecological impact of its production process by revealing the extent to which each major component of the production process is responsible for the overall environmental impact and identify the sources of the impact. Exergoenvironmental evaluation consists of three major steps. The first step involves a detailed exergy analysis of the production system under consideration using the input - output energy analysis method; in the second step, the required values of the environmental impact are determined by applying the ECO - 99 life cycle assessment method. In the third step the environmental impacts are assigned to the exergy streams in the process. Subsequently, exergoenvironmental variables are calculated and the exergoenvironmental evaluation is carried out. . Based on a 70% utilization capacity, embodied energy intensity of 7.07GJ/t and overall exergic efficiency of 0.55; the exergoenvironmental evaluation shows that the major process components impacting the environment were the kiln and limestone extraction processes. The study also showed that exergy destruction occasioned by process and combustion emissions in the kiln is the major source of environmental hazards in the process. With an overall environmental factor of 20.3% for the plant, the study concludes that the environmental hazards are mainly due to system irreversibilities in the process and not the related components environmental factor.