A final year student of the Department of Chemistry Federal University Dutse, Zainab Bilyamin has converted sachet (pure) water leather waste to hybrid fuel (kerosene and diesel) as her final year project. The research project titled” Conversion of low-density polyethylene and mixed low-density polyethylene with polyethylene terephthalate into fuel.

The final result shows that the hybrid fuel produced from the pure water leather waste products has similar properties as normal kerosene and diesel as it was used to light a kerosene lamp and power a pumping machine successfully.
The fuel can be used to power a generator to produce electricity, FUD Newsletter stated.

According to Zainab, she was motivated to carry out the research after reading about the possibility of converting polymeric (leather) waste into fuel because in Nigeria polymeric waste keeps pilling up the street without recycling which poses environmental hazard whereas this waste can be converted to wealth.

Mallam Aminu Dauda, her Research Supervisor said he quickly key into the project when Zainab brought the idea because we all know that combating the menace of this polymeric waste pollution has become a global challenge, despite the fact that recycling rates are comparatively low, and this has lead to polymeric waste pollution more than ever.

Similarly, he noted that the research method used in the research is a normal process of Thermal cracking method where the waste was subjected to high temperature of about 450-500 °C which causes the breakage of the molecular bonds and breaking down long chained, higher boiling hydrocarbons into shorter chained, lower boiling hydrocarbons in the absence of oxygen.

Adding that, in the course of the research “they had to design and fabricate a machine (reactor) at the Kano Technology Incubation Centre, which was used for the pyrolysis, the method used to convert the polymeric waste into fuel.”

In addition, Zainab who is a native of Jigawa said she is interested in academics as she wants to carry the research further with her Masters and PhD program by the grace of God adding that the research gulped more than N100, 000.

Meanwhile, Zainab and her Supervisor call on the government to invest in this area of research as it will ease the blockage caused by polymeric waste and at the same time serve as a source of revenue to the government and also a means of reducing youth restiveness.

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