Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) in partnership with the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has presented the winning work of the Nigeria Prize for Science for 2019 to industry players to help reduce country’s carbon footprint and kick-start a vibrant bioenergy industry.
The winners Prof. Meihong Wang and Matthew Aneke on Wednesday presented their work on carbon capture, carbon utiilisation, biomass hasification and energy storage for power generation at the annual NLNG-LCCI business interactive forum. This year’s forum was held as a webinar.
The 2019 winning work provides solutions to the capture of carbon from the atmosphere and subsequent utilisation as well as providing alternative and safe energy for cooking and electricity, with the potential of reversing the trend of tree cutting for cooking and contributing positively to the roll-back of droughts and desertification in the country.
The Nigeria Prize for Science is an annual $100,000 award sponsored by NLNG in the last 15 years to promote innovations in science and technology that will solve age-old problems and drive development in Nigeria.
In her remarks, NLNG’s general manager of external relations and sustainable development Eyono Fatayi-Williams said the company has got an inspiring list of winning works in different areas of science through the Nigeria Prize for Science. She added that the force behind NLNG’s drive was its vision of “helping to build a better Nigeria”.
Fatayi-Williams remarked further that the company’s interest was to make solutions recognised through the prize practicable and beneficial to Nigerians. She stated that NLNG was keen to contribute to solutions that will uplift the country beyond its developmental challenge and that will bring value to ordinary Nigerians.
In her speech, LCCI president Toki Mabogunje represented by the deputy president of the chamber Olawale Cole said the handshake between the industry players and scientists is the path to generating value that can turn around the narrative on the country’s development.
She added that the NLNG/LCCI business interactive webinar will help drive healthy conversations that can enable wide-scale use of the winning works, urging scientists seeking solutions to Nigeria problems not to relent in generating innovations that will improve the lives of Nigerians.
Wang is a professor of energy systems at the University of Sheffield. He is a chartered engineer and has published over 180 technical papers and industrial reports. Some of his papers have won awards such as the SAGE Best Paper Prize 2014 and Ludwig Mond Prize 2014 by IMechE.
Aneke, a graduate of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sheffield with expertise in process design and modelling, power systems analysis, power generation, renewable energy and environmental protection among others.
