Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE), Delta State, will soon unveil a 20,000 barrel-per-stream-day (BPSD) capacity indigenous refinery built by the university with locally sourced materials.
The Vice-Chancellor of FUPRE, Prof. Akpofure Rim-Rukeh, disclosed this in Warri at the weekend, and said he is optimistic that the refinery would be completed soon. The VC stated that inadequate funding had stalled the project, which was conceived in 2018.
Speaking further on the indigenous refinery, the vice-chancellor, said work on the project was in progress and that the boiler units had been completed, while work was ongoing on the atmospheric and vacuum distillation units.
“The refinery is 100% indigenous, which means that the design and everything that goes into it is 100% fabricated in the university. FUPRE will not purchase any parts from anywhere.
“Its design and the boiler unit have been completed. The next stage is the construction of the atmospheric distillation and vacuum distillation units,” he said.
Rim-Rukeh, who was marking one year in office; presented his performance scorecard to journalists and said that the university had made great strides in its academic programmes, ICT and infrastructure development, as well as provision of resource materials, healthcare and improved relationship with host communities.
“As an innovative and research-intensive university, we are aggressively pursuing socially impactful research activities with utility value and practical application. To this end, the university had developed a policy on research and direction.
“It is in acknowledging the university’s prowess in research and innovation that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), pursuant to President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to focus on the development of centre of excellence in the nation’s university system that we are about to establish centre for climate change, water and renewable energy research centres,” he stated.
Rim-Rukeh also disclosed that the university recently won an N40m research grant from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to manufacture MedLink, an innovative remote medical device and verbally programmable interactive remote patient monitoring device that physicians could use to monitor patients outside hospitals.
“The device measures blood pressure, blood glucose, pulse, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, electrocardiography, body temperature and respiratory data.
“Despite the successes, FUPRE was facing challenges in infrastructural deficit, non-release of takeoff grant by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), non-implementation of the FUPRE Act and inadequate funding,” he said.
(BNN)