Off-grid gasoline-powered generators: pollutants’ footprints and health risk assessment in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Sub-Sahara Africa is renowned for poor electricity supply with Nigeria’s case being critical. Generator sets, which have been adopted as an alternative and reliable source of power in Nigeria, are linked to emission footprints detrimental to the environment and human health. The dearth of literature in open domain on the concentrations of pollutants and potential health risk related to the use of gasoline-fueled generators prompted this study. Concentrations of CO₂, CO and particulate matter (PM_2.5) emitted from selected randomly 174 gasoline-powered household generators were measured. Standard instruments were employed to measure these concentrations at 0.3–0.5 m from the exhaust pipe for 1 h (at 10 mins interval). The study area was Sango, Ogun State, Nigeria. The obtained results were 710 ± 19.1 ppm, 83 ± 4.0 ppm and 83 ± 4.1 µg/m³ (average) for CO₂, CO, and PM_2.5, respectively. The regression analyse carried out on the data for the age and efficiency of the generators in relation to the concentration data of CO₂, CO and PM_2.5 showed that the efficiency (R = 0.92 and F = 301.3) has more impact on the concentrations than the age (R = 0.68 and F = 49.6). Also, the efficiency of the generators was observed to have positive and significant effect on both the CO₂ (t-stat = 10.05 and P-value = ≪ 0.050) and PM_2.5 (t-stat = 2.26 and P-value = 0.025) concentrations. The average concentrations of CO₂ and PM_2.5 were observed to be higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization. Health impact assessment revealed hazardous and unhealthy status for CO and PM_2.5 with air quality indices of >500 and 178.8, respectively. This study recommends efficient use of generators, fuel switching (gasoline to LPG), stringent emission measures and use of renewable energy as possible solutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Generators
• pollutants
• air quality
• health risk
• gasoline
• Nigeria

Conflict of interest

No conflict of interest is applicable to this work.

Additional information

Funding

No fund was received from any organization to carry out this research.

Notes on contributors

Solomon O. Giwa

Solomon O. Giwa graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) from University of Ilorin, Nigeria in the year 2000. He completed his Master degree from Universiti Putra Malaysia (Putra University Malaysia) in 2010. Presently, he is a Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In the Department, he teaches courses such as Internal Combustion Engines, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (I and II), Engineering Mathematics (I and II), Mechanics of Machines (I and II), Strength of Materials and Workshop Practices (I, II and III). His research areas of interest are; energy (renewable, sustainable and alternative energy), environmental and emission studies, and heat transfer and flow regimes of nanofluids. Of which he has authored several local and international conference papers, journals, chapters in a book, and a book in this regard. His current research centres on gas flaring emission inventory and emission inventories of combustion-related processes. He is currently on his PhD programme at University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Collins N. Nwaokocha

Collins N. Nwaokocha graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Mechanical Engineering from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria in the year 2008. He completed his Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria in the year 2013. He lectures at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Environmental Studies, Ibogun Campus of Olabisi Onabanjo University in Nigeria. He is a member of the following professional bodies: Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE); Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers (NIMechE); African Wind Energy Association (AfriWEA); Council for Renewable Energy in Nigeria (CREN) & American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers (ASTFE). His research interests are: Energy (Renewable, Sustainable & Alternative); Energy and Environment; Computer Aided Engineering; Heat transfer performance of hybrid nanofluids. He has authored nine conference papers, thirty-five journals and six contributions to books. He is currently a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

David O. Samuel

David O. Samuel is a Ph. D degree holder in Thermo fluids Engineering, which was earned from Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. His research focus is in Renewable Energy, Energy Technique, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Heat and Mass Transfer, Waste-to-Wealth Projects. He obtained his B.Eng. and M.Eng. Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, in 1999 and 2006, respectively. He is currently a full-time lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, Delta State, Nigeria. He is a member of the Nigeria Society of Engineers and registered Engineer (COREN) and a member of International Association of Engineers (IAENG). He has authored local and international conference papers, journals and books.