ABU-PTDF chair secures patents registration for four technological inventions
Ahmadu Bello University secured patents registration for four technological inventions by various researchers at the institution’s Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Professorial Chair in Chemical Engineering, outgoing ABU-PTDF Chair Occupant, Prof. Baba Jibril El-Yakubu, has disclosed.
Prof. El-Yakubu, who made a presentation at the close-out seminar organised by the PTDF Chair marking the expiration of his tenure as the chair occupant, explained that the patents registrations were obtained between 2017 and 2025 from the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
He listed the patents registered as follows: ‘The Process of Production of Mesoporous Silica-Alginate/Chitosan Capsules for High Bioethanol Yield’, and ‘The Process of Batch Solvent Extraction of Artemisin as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient from Artemisia Annua Leaves’.
Others are ‘Selective Sorption-Enhanced Hierarchical ZSM5-supported Zn-Ni Catalysts developed for Enhanced Hydrogen and Bio-Oil Production from Rice Husk Pyrolysis’ and ‘System for Upgrading Heavy Crude Oil Using Biometallic Catalysts and Method for Saturates Characterization Using Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectroscopy and Flame-Ionization Detectors’.
The outgoing chair occupant, who spoke on ‘Refinery Fluid Catalytic Cracking Zeolite-Based Catalysts: Its Deactivation and Passivation, also said four more applications for patents registration at the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment by the University were presently under review.
He further disclosed that the chair under his watch recorded a total of 40 academic publications on basic crude oil refining operations and importance of catalysts in different recognised peer-reviewed journals.
The PTDF Professorial Chair, according to him, had recently been focusing on three areas. Such areas include development cleaner or greener alternative synthesis methods, modifying existing zeolites through hierarchicalisation, and gaining insight into fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts’ deactivation and passivation using a fixed bed flow reactor.
Prof. El-Yakubu stressed the importance of the chair’s research topic as FCC unit was considered the most vital catalytic conversion unit and the primary source of revenue for the refinery.
For example, he explained, the gasoline produced from FCC unit accounted for35% to 50% of the total globally.
He also said the largest refineries in the world in terms of the refinery FCC unit capacity in 2020 included Baton Rouge, US, and Jamnagar, India.
The outgoing chair occupant further said the largest upcoming refineries with FCC units worldwide (from 2021 to 2025) included Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, saying that the PTDF chair’s primary aim was to provide further insights into the synthesis, deactivation, and passivation of zeolite-based catalysts.
Prof. El-Yakubu’s presentation illustrated the PTDF chair efforts to reduce nickel deactivation by adding boron.
He recommended that a computational approach should be employed to gain more insights and that techno-economic and feasibility studies should be conducted to facilitate the commercialisation of zeolite Y in Nigeria.
El-Yakubu further suggested that a more advanced catalyst deactivation method such as cyclic propane steaming should be employed instead of deactivation by impregnation as this did not properly mimic the deactivation in real life scenario.
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