CASE REPORT


Challenges and Prospects of Converting Nigeria Illegal Refineries to Modular Refineries



Mamudu Angela1, *, Okoro Emeka2, Igwilo Kevin3, Olabode Oluwasanmi2, Elehinafe Francis1, Odunlami Olayemi1
1 1Department of Chemical Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria
2 Department of Petroleum Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria
3 Department of Petroleum Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria


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Creative Commons License
© 2019 Angela et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria; Tel: 08102419058; E-mail: angela.mamudu@covenantuniversity.edu.ng


Abstract

The sub-optimum conditions of Nigeria conventional refineries remains a drastic setback since all other industries are intertwined with its outputs. It is noted that amidst all other glaring contributing factors as listed in the study, insufficient large capital funds on the part of private investors and vandalization of pipelines seems to be conspicuous. The stolen crude oil got from the pipelines serve as the beginning point for illegal refining. Asides the issue of quality control of products, their sub-standard operation also affects Nigerians environmentally and economically. The more the Government invest time and resources to stop their operation; the more they spring up like mushrooms. This paper reflects the authors view on achieving a win-win scenario. The upgrading of existing illegal refineries at strategic locations within the country to standard modular refineries seems to be a more feasible and friendly approach. The issue of channeling of intermediate products can be solved through the introduction of clusters, where final products of one become raw material for the other. Intermediate products can also be channeled to Government owned conventional refineries for further processing. From analysis, it is deduced that overall design capacities from clusters have optimum effect on the intermediate environment in terms of meeting demand. Extensive operational training on crude oil refining will help buttress the point while Transfer of Knowledge from official vendors to Nigerian Engineers on how to fabricate modular refining units locally will also help to reduce overall cost.

Keyword: Nigeria, Modular, Illegal, Refineries, Crude oil, Enviroment.