‘Our invented pozzalana cement and brick moulding machines can reduce cost of building by half’

What is the reason and benefits of the recent NBBRI conference held in Abuja? The 2016 NBRRI conference is an annual event that picks on some problem areas and topical issues in the mandate areas of the institute. And through the work of the institute and other researchers, both in academia and industry, and through […]

What is the reason and benefits of the recent NBBRI conference held in Abuja?
The 2016 NBRRI conference is an annual event that picks on some problem areas and topical issues in the mandate areas of the institute. And through the work of the institute and other researchers, both in academia and industry, and through the experience of every one, presentations are made and solutions found for problems. This year, 2016, the theme of the conference was “Repositioning the construction industry in Nigeria, realities and possibilities.” It has been seen that the contributions of the construction industry to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is substantial, both in Nigeria and other countries. The construction industry is responsible for quite a good percentage of economic growth as well as sustainable development of the country. It provides infrastructure and buildings-infrastructure like railway, road, waterway and  airport required for development and it  also accounts  for as much as 20 percent of the employed force of the country. The conference reviewed the construction industry in Nigeria and highlighted a number of issues.

Beyond press conferences, what are the practical steps taken by NBRRI to ensure that the proffered solutions are adopted?
We look at a number of technologies and key into those that address the issue of affordable housing in the country. We look at techniques and indigenous solutions for road project, we look at a number of innovative research output, particularly in the area of alternative binding materials which are either partial substitute for cement or, in this case, for the first time, we found out that you can come out with some binders that could completely replace cement. So these were presented to the industry and  industrialists  were invited.

Why is it that some of the  machines  manufactured by NBBRI are  not readily available in the market ?
It is not that they are not available for commercial application, it is the lack of strong government policy to encourage commercialisation. We are using our machines in the country, on quite a number of sites.

Tell us some of the  machines you have produced and their uses.
First and foremost, it is our responsibility to provide an innovation and it is the responsibility of the country to encourage investors to come and capitalise on the innovations for application. In addition to that, we do some piecemeal fabrication which we take to sites for training purposes.
And on our  own sites, we build with our technologies and  if people need our machines, they can come to us-  and  say  we need a specific number of machines  because we are not a commercial enterprise, and we will  produce  the machines for them. But I think you know that the essence of a research  institute is to put the innovation on the table for commercialisation.

The issues of road failures and  building collapse are rampant in the country. What could be done to curb these menaces?
I think I want to disagree that the issue of building collapse has not been addressed. We are looking towards zero tolerance. Consider that we had cases of collapse of 33 buildings in 2012, in Lagos, 22 in 2012 in Abuja and through interventions in 2013, we had half of that -17 in Lagos and zero in Abuja, in 2014 we had probably less than 10 in Lagos and zero in Abuja. In 2015, we had 6 or 7 in Lagos and zero in Abuja and, in 2016, so far, we had  3 in Lagos and zero in Abuja. Progress has been made but that is not to say we should not develop a zero tolerance for building collapse. And the reasons had also been discussed Basically for building collapse we believe that measures are being taken but it is important that town planning authorities and municipal planning authorities,  development controls ensure that every building  that is going to be constructed has approved building plan. The issue of road pavement failure-that was also tackled in many dimensions because we looked at new solutions to road pavement construction and introduction of NALUE technology solution in order to strengthen our roads. Also, we discussed the issues of drainage, cutting corners during construction supervision, etcetera. The difference between road pavement failure and that of building is, of course, that most of the roads are build by government and government is the regulator in the industry. So, all the measures have to be taken by the government officials-the engineer, etcetera.  The pilot plant for pozzzalana  have been  completed  100 percent. Part of the results were presented in the ‘construction repositioning conference’ we just organised and the results are very promising. They have high potential. The pilot plant is for pozzalana and pozzalana is for partial replacement of cement and the reason for that is that the initial reaction of the various cement reaction plus water gives out calcium oxide as well as calcium hydroxide. Now the calcium hydroxide component begins to react with siliceous materials which are pozzalana   and continues to develop strength because the calcium hydroxide after the initial reaction is actually an unwanted element responsible for the weakness of concrete. Now pozzalana harnesses it and continues to develop its strength. Now, the new studies had shown that calcium carbides, the result of acetylene welding which is a waste in this country, actually provides ready-made calcium hydroxide that the pozzalana can use and the reserves were quite good. The experiments have started and they were given excellent results. In a nutshell, we are already planning to commission the plant this year. 

If you eventually commence production of pozzalana cement, how many can you push into the market?
Well, part of the communiqué that is going to come out, just like the discussion we had about the machines and other equipment, is to urge government to encourage the commercialisation of the pozzalana in all parts of the country. That was stated very clearly and we also want to say that the results are good and the pilot plant has the production capacity of about 2 tonnes per day. So, after the initial research and development activities, the institute may decide to have a commercial wing for the commercialisation and application of pozzalana.