I was a starry-eyed little boy in the early eighties when the excavators, bulldozers, trucks and other machinery of mining of the Nigerian Coal Corporation invaded my village. They had come to scoop away the heavy coal reserves literally embedded in sand formation half my district or so.
The hitherto serene village was suddenly caught up in a state of frenzy, the dirt roads that rarely see traffic were being expanded and upgraded and many strange faces thronged the entire districts as the few decent houses were taken up by mine ‘OGAs’.
Even my young mind could see the excitement occasioned by the soaring economy of the more-or-less farm settlement that was my village. Many young locals were taking up casual jobs in the mines just as new trades and businesses that serviced the workers opened.
I couldn’t see the illegality of it then but the scale of environmental impact then was catastrophic. I even thought the miners had rights to sack my entire village. Overnight, small streams, mostly clean spring water became big rivers with changing colours of brown to black. Fresh water from other sources was being served the villages by tankers from the mines.
All the covets that allowed access across the streams were washed away by the marauding waters sparking agitation from older and more conscious college students for construction of bridges. Constantly mine haze of dusts casts heavy clouds over the entire district. It was then I purposed in my young mind I was going to be a mine ‘Oga’ so that I will not only be ‘famous’ but stop the water and the dusts from coming.
I don’t think I ever heard what such profession in mining or environmental science is called. More out of fate or hiring consideration, many years after the mines had closed and graduate unemployment was soaring, in the 90s, I chose and trained as a geologist!
Nigerian is blessed with huge coal reserves of over 2 billion metric tonnes across the country, of which about 650 million toones are proven and recoverable through simple surface mining. Nigeria high-quality sub-bituminous coal occurs in the Anambra geologic basin spanning from Okigwe in the south to Nasarrawa in the northern part of the country. Notable coals reserves that were at various times exploited are Ogboyoga(100), in million tonnes, Okaba(70), Owukpa(60), Ezimo(50)and Enugu(50). Experts believe this figures will be significantly higher if modern exploration techniques are used. These finds were all in colonial times.
Coal worldwide hold the records as the oldest known commercial fossil fuel and was the toast of most industrial hubs around the world for energy production, firing furnaces of many industrial giants and turbines of power generation companies. Coal tar was the main binding material for road construction in ancient times, and in this part of the world, coal tar still remains the family name for asphalts.
But all that was before the advent of petroleum, particularly for Nigeria who was producing goal mainly for export. The liquid hydrocarbon revolution effectively replaced coal as a more efficient source of energy and sharp drop in export demand spelt a death knell for Nigerian coal industry. The international trade of coal has reduced but its production and local utilization across the world has been growing since year 2000. Coal is finding wider applications in many areas and hydrocarbon fuels can even be squeezed from it.
It is even believed that there will be high demand for Nigerian coals because of its low sulfur contents. China, USA, India, Russia and Japan accounts for 76% of world coal use. Of this 67% is used by China plus the rest of Asia.
Given the sorry state of Nigeria infrastructure, how can we harness coal to drive our development? Coal still remains the cheapest source of fossil fuel considering the large reserve we have here and the ease of exploitation.
Power generation finds the highest use for coal worldwide and is the preferred source of fuel for power generation in most countries. Coal-fired power plants currently accounts for 41% of global electricity, with some countries having more than 50% of the power plants fueled with coal. For a coal-rich country, it is arguably our cheapest source of energy; and what more? It employs the easiest and cheapest technology for power generation. This form of coal called thermal or steam coal is pulverized and scooped into combustion chamber where it is burnt to produce heat for steam turbines.
It is disappointing that with our rich and huge proven coal reserves we don’t even have one running coal thermal plant. The Itobe coal plant billed to produce about 1,200meggawats on completion is that only one of such planned. Nigeria can arguably meet her energy need from only coal. It will be a great idea if a coal thermal plant is built in each of the area with coal deposit. It is a technology that can be effectively managed by local experts.
Beyond electricity generation, coal can play a key role in other areas of infrastructure development. Civil construction utilizes a lot of coal products. In Nigeria, the name ‘coal tar’ is synonymous with any kind of asphalt used as binding covers in road construction. This is because the main asphalt material in the early times was coal tar. It is a very strong and effective binding material for road work. For two reasons it is replaced today by bitumen.
The closure of coal mines that came with oil boom threw up bitumen as the commonest material. Bitumen is a by-product of petroleum refining. Presently, in most advance countries, coal tar is being discouraged because it is discovered to be highly carcinogenous, that is, it has some cancer causing components. Today bitumen can be made from rich bituminous coal but fly ash, a coal combustion product is the new revolutionary product in civil construction. Fly ash is used as replacement or supplement for cement in concrete works.
In some western countries, particularly the United States, fly ash is the preferred material for concrete works because it is not only more durable, it is environmentally friendly. Unlike cement, it releases far less green house gas (GHG).
Nigeria now is now the leading cement producer in Africa. Coal is an important source of energy for cement production. The heat needed for cement kilning can be generated from coal. As with cement production, coal also finds useful application in steel production. Coking coal or metallurgical coal is the best fuel used in iron-ore refining. This type coal is found in rich exploitable quantity in Lafia-Obi in Nassarawa. This can help in our long experimentation in steel development.
With worsening road transport system in Nigeria, the rail sector is crying for attention and still remains the best option to come to the rescue. Coal-fired train popularly called locomotive, the type of trains in use during our coal/rail era is still very much in circulation around the world. We can still have locomotive in the mix as we look to revamp the rail sector. If we can’t have them in the luxury fleet, they can come cheap for the cargo/freighting fleet. Fueling them will come cheap with our abundant coal deposits.
With a sharp drop in oil revenues, coming at a time we are experiencing the worst kind of infrastructure deficit and decay, it is important we look at cheap alternatives to executing capital projects. Coal is certainly will be the gold we have ignored for too long.
The small wet-nose John of 80s is now a man. And with the coal mines closed, closing the door to his dream of becoming a mine ‘Oga’ now dwells in a far city. Will a shift in government policy shift attention to his Owukpa coal mines? Well, maybe then he would head back to the village to ensure environmental justice and best practice.
Abah John Abah, Geologist, Entrepreneur, and public interest commentator on Oil & Gas, Power and environment writes from Lagos. Contacts: abahjon@gmail.com, abahjon@facebook.com, and @Abahjon.
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