Towards a sustainable bioeconomy in Nigeria
Executive Summary
This report analyses the opportunities and policy challenges facing the bio-economy in transitioning towards a more sustainable, friendly and environmental renewable energy source. It provides an overview of the bioeconomy in terms of motivation, policy framework, and application as a concept for achieving sustainable development.
The report also shows that there is no clear cut definition for bioeconomy, the definitions are evolving and vary depending on the actors, motivation, and objectives. However, bioeconomy has become the center of sustainable economic strategies in numerous countries but Nigeria lacks a cohesive bioeconomy policy. The chief motivation for bioeconomy adoption in these countries is to address societal challenges while achieving sustainable economic development. The policies focused on research and innovation, education and training, technology transfer, commercialization, and market development support. Conclusion: To achieve sustainable development, Nigeria must develop and implement a holistic bioeconomy policy cutting across all relevant economic sectors.
Abstract
Organic and inorganic substances released into the environment as a result of domestic, agricultural and industrial activities often lead to serious pollution. Also, Pollution of surface water has become one of the most important environmental problems.
Recently The world energy crisis and increased greenhouse gas emissions have driven the search for alternative and environmentally friendly renewable energy sources. According to life cycle analysis, microalgae biofuel is identified as one of the major renewable energy sources for sustainable development, with the potential to replace fossil-based fuels. As a result, there are many studies by various authors emphasizing the relationships of algae to clean water. Recently, algae have become significant organisms for biological purification of wastewater since they can accumulate plant nutrients, heavy metals, pesticides, organic and inorganic toxic substances and radioactive matters in their cells/bodies.
Introduction
Countries and regions around the world are facing several economic, environmental and social challenges. Increased demand for energy, primary resources, industrial products, and services are putting significant pressure on the sustainability of the ecosystems that support our society. Bioeconomy promises solutions to these major societal challenges.
The emergence of the bioeconomy agenda started with the publication of the Brundtland Report which defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Microalgae description
In general, algae can be referred to as plant-like organisms that are usually photosynthetic and aquatic, but do not have true roots, stems, leaves, vascular tissue and have simple reproductive structures. They are distributed worldwide in the sea, in freshwater and most situations on land. Most are microscopic, but some are quite large, e.g, some marine seaweeds that can exceed 50m in length.
The algae have chlorophyll and can manufacture their food through the process of photosynthesis. Microalgae represent an attractive feedstock for the production of higher energy density. Algae, in general, can produce a wide array of different chemical intermediates that can be converted into biofuels. Microalgae have the capability of producing hydrogen, lipids, hydrocarbons, and carbohydrates, which can be converted into a variety of fuels.
Microalgae biofuels belong to the third generation type of biofuels, which are considered as an alternative energy source for fossil fuels without the disadvantages associated with the first and second-generation biofuels. Generally, the first-generation biofuels are derived from crop plants, such as soybean, corn, maize, sugar beet, and sugar cane; palm oil; rapeseed oil; vegetable oils; and animal fats. These types of biofuels have created a lot of disputes due to their negative impacts on food security, global food markets, water scarcity, and deforestation. Besides, the second-generation biofuels derived from non-edible oils (Jatropha curcas, Pongamia pinnata, Simarouba glauca, etc.), lignocellulose biomass, and forest residues require huge areas of land otherwise that could be used for food production. Currently, the second-generation biofuel production also lacks efficient technologies for commercial exploitation of wastes as a source for biofuel generation. Based on the above-mentioned drawbacks associated with first and second-generation biofuels, microalgae biofuel seems to be a viable alternative source of energy to replace or supplement fossil fuels.
The industrial cultivation of microalgae to produce biofuels and bioproducts has increased dramatically over the last few decades. Algae are produced in quantity and sold directly as food and nutrient supplements, while their processed products or extracts are used in biopharmaceuticals and cosmetics
Bioenergy and microalgae
The rapidly growing population of the world continuously increases the global demand for fuel energy. The intensive use of fossil fuels worldwide leads to its depletion and will bring them close to the point of exhaustion due to unsustainable and nonrenewable nature. Thus, biofuels are now a growing opportunity throughout the world as an alternative to fossil fuels. Some developed countries are already producing biofuels at the commercial level. Biofuels such as biodiesel and bioethanol are proving to be excellent alternative fuels and can be produced from several resources of biomass, such as food crops, crop wastes or fruits, woody parts of plants, garbage, and algae. The advantageous features of biofuels produced from biomass are renewability and a significantly smaller contribution to environmental pollution and global warming.
International Experiences
The European Commission in the document entitled ―Bio-economy for Europe presented production models based on biological processes and natural ecosystems using natural materials, which consume minimal amounts of energy without generating waste, as all waste resulting from one process is the material for the next and as a result, it is reused in the ecosystem.
The European Commission combined a strategy and action plan document called ―Innovating for Sustainable Growth: A Bioeconomy for Europe which offers direction for research and innovation agendas in the bioeconomy sectors, contributes to a more enabling policy environment and paves the way for a more innovative, resource-efficient and competitive European society.
The policy model brings together several stand-alone policy areas (e.g. climate change, agricultural and industrial policy, R&D and innovation, environmental policy, etc., as an attempt to provide an integrated response to several broad challenges — i.e. climate change; food and energy insecurity; resource constraints with emphasis on the sustainable use of natural resources, competitiveness, socioeconomic and environmental issues. The actions are based on three key pillars: investments in research, innovation, and skills;
Bioeconomy Committee the British Columbia (BC) in 2011. The role of the committee under the direction of the Minister of Jobs, Tourism, and Innovation was to investigate the opportunities for the province in the emerging bioeconomy. The outcome of the committee‘s work was published as a bioeconomy strategy for British Columbia. Alberta, another province, also published a bioeconomy policy document in 2013. The report listed the driving forces for building the province‘s bioeconomy to include securing its economic future, advancing world-leading resource stewardship and investing in families and communities. Alberta‘s document presents a broad approach to bioeconomy and resembled the strategy of BC more than it resembles the document of BiotecCanada in the sense that it does not focus on biotechnology.
Sasson and Malpica reviewed how Latin American has embraced bioeconomy in the last two decades. The study showed that the transition towards knowledge-based bioeconomy in representative countries in the region, including Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and Peru is highly dependent on the level of applicability of new technology developments in specific sectors of their economies, as shown by a high socio-economic impact, is the implementation of GMO technology in agriculture.
However, as in other regions of the world, Latin America faces significant challenges in its transition towards implementing new bioeconomy value chains, where technological readiness is at a lower level and where the economic sector for its application is still building. Countries with a small gross national product are also adopting the principles of bioeconomy. An interesting case is that of Cuba, which has reached high-level achievements in the implementation of biotechnology. This also demonstrates that developing countries can exploit technology just as efficiently as developed nations. Brazil also churned out more than 10 biotechnology incubator projects as companies, while India has emerged as a center for enzyme production and drug development.
Other countries relevant to the global bioeconomy but not included in this study are Russia which launched an innovation strategy in 2010 entitled ―Innovative Russia 2020; China which is pursuing a strong position in the bioeconomy with a special focus on biochemistry and life sciences; Malaysia which has a vision for the creation of a bioeconomy, the BioEconomy Initiative Malaysia (BIM) was launched at BioMalaysia in 2011 in addition to the ―National Biomass Strategy to 2020; and Brazil which issued in 2007 a decree including an annex detailing the development of its bioeconomy.
When The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) was established by the National Biosafety Management Agency Act 2015. It was an act to establish the National Biosafety Management Agency which was charged with the responsibility for providing a regulatory framework, an institutional and administrative mechanism for safety measures in the application of modern biotechnology in Nigeria with the view to preventing any adverse effects on human health, animals, plants, and environment.
But majorly low levels of investment in research have been the major roadblocks for Nigerian scientists towards the development of biotechnology. Other problems include lack of infrastructure and skilled manpower, poor technological entrepreneurial culture, ineffective enforcement of intellectual property rights, and insufficient backing by the national government. The country also lacks the teaching and learning frameworks to generate the necessary domestic labor force for growing needs in the biotechnology sector.
The only available bioeconomy related policy is the National Biofuel Policy and Incentives 2007. The Policy Document developed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC was approved by the Federal Executive Council on June 20th, 2007 with a view to diversify fuel feedstock and to encourage agro-industrial development in Nigeria. The bio-fuel program constitutes a major and unique attempt to integrate the agricultural sector of the economy with the downstream petroleum sector while fostering the use of other renewable energy sources.
Conclusion
The next wave of the economy is the bioeconomy, which produces economic growth and wellbeing. Already many developed and developing countries are placing emphasis on the development of a bioeconomy, Nigeria and other African countries must not be left behind. To advance a sustainable bioeconomy in Nigeria, this paper calls for the development of a holistic bioeconomy policy which must be an integral part of the national developmental agenda.
A responsible bioeconomy sector for Nigeria calls for effective governance and coordination to make it cut across all the relevant economic sectors. Enhancing a competitive and productive bioeconomy requires target investment in research, innovation and skills; education and training; policy interaction and stakeholder engagement; market development support to enhance competitiveness; and demand-side instruments while taking into account legitimate societal concerns and needs. With appropriate political commitment across all arms of the federation, Nigeria could embrace bioeconomy to overcome a number of her environmental, social and economic challenges.
