ABUJA – Prof. Joydeep Dutta, Vice President, Asian Institute of Technology, has advised Nigeria to use nanotechnology to address challenges in oil and gas industry to boost national economy.
Dutta gave the advice in Abuja during the maiden Nigeria International Conference on Zeolite organised by the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.
“According to Wikipedia encyclopedia, nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter on an atomic, molecular and supramolecular scale.
“Nanotechnology is a modern science and engineering technology used in the design and construction of useful technological devices whose sizes are a few billionths of a meter.
“Every country needs to embrace this technology because it is one area that is developing very fast and has huge potential to improve lives.
“It is a new domain of science and engineering which we call the 21st century manufacturing technology,’’ he said.
He maintained that Nigeria could achieve better quality and quantity of products if nanotechnology was applied in its oil and gas industrial sector.
According to him, one of the problems facing people in developing countries is the contamination of water.
He said that nanotechnology could be effectively used to remove bacteria directly from water, a process referred to as nano filter.
He added that nano filter had been tested in developing countries with excellent result.
“Most of the casualties of water borne diseases are in developing countries. Nano filter technology can make water safer for people to drink,’’ he said.
He listed other areas to which nanotechnology could be applied as medicine, chemical, agriculture, energy, Information Technology among others.
Earlier, Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Sulyman Abdulkareem, Vice Chancellor, Al-Hikman University, Ilorin, Nigeria, disclosed that Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU) Zaria had successfully produced a pilot synthetic zeolite.
He said that the pilot synthetic zeolite was ready for commercialisation and could be used for water cleaning and as a catalyst for chemical reaction in the laboratory.
“Zeolites have been in existence from time; synthetic zeolite is what is new.
“This can be used for cleaning water or as a catalyst to speed up rate of reaction,’’ Abdulkareem said.