Nigeria: A Young Entrepreneur Success Story in the Renewable Energy Industry
Situated about 100km from Ilorin (the capital of Kwara
state) in Asa local government, is a renewable energy factory, “ Rianol Energy ”,
specialized in the production of ethanol as a cheaper and much safer alternative
to kerosene and gas.
The founder, Mr. Mark Obisesan, a young Nigerian with
a background in Computing and Information Technology, is gradually influencing
what happens in many kitchens across several households.
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| Mark Obisesan |
When he returned
to Nigeria from the United Kingdom about 10 years back, he initially wanted to
set up a water factory and create hundreds of jobs for local communities. But, on realizing that he needed a steady power supply
to successfully run a factory at the scale, he then searched a cheap and
alternative power supply that led him to setting up a renewable energy company
instead.
According
to statistics, there are about 70,000 kerosene related deaths in Nigeria yearly,
not to mention the hundreds of deaths from gas explosions. Obisesan's idea of
converting ethanol into energy for domestic cooking seems likely to drastically
reduce, if not eliminate, such avoidable domestic accidents.
Furthermore,
the energy it produces is clean and environmentally friendly - saving us from
the ills of pollution. Studies have shown that ethanol has less carbon soot,
fewer emissions, produces no smoke or smell and encourages renewable energy
usage.
He gets ethanol from starch
and sugar crops like corn, wheat or sugar cane that he planted on an expanse of
land in Asa, somewhere in Kwara state. These crops are processed in his factory
and different grades of ethanol are obtained that can serve several purposes
one of which is energy. The company is working on developing a completely
zero-waste process where the farm and the plant become self-sufficient. A process
where virtually nothing goes to waste from cultivating the crops right to the
end product of extracting ethanol.
By Nadia TIH
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