Kayode Abdul
The Vice-Chancellor of the Kwara State University, (KWASU) Professor Shaykh-Luqman Jimoh on Friday disclosed that the institution had commenced discussion with two Chinese Auto Companies for the supply of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) conversion kits.
The VC, who made this known while addressing Journalists at the KWASU Business School, located on Ajasse-Ipo Road, Ilorin, said the partnership was necessitated to ensure quality and affordable conversion kits.
Recall that the institution had early this month announced the conversion of two of their utility vehicles to CNG from Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and three other vehicles to electrical by their technicians.
The VC acknowledged the support of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and said after the successful conversion of the first five vehicles, they had also reached an agreement with the state Ministry of Business and Innovation and State-owned Transport Corporation (Kwara Express) to convert about 30 vehicles to CNG.
According to him, this has prompted the institution to enter into partnership with the Chinese Companies.
“The partnership with these two Chinese companies namely: Zhejiang Sinray Electronics Limited and Jiaxing Keyuan Electronics Limited is to ensure the production of customized KWASU conversion kits that will be of high quality with a considerable market price,” he said.
Prof Jimoh further asserted that the institution would soon open a CNG conversion center at Ilorin, the capital city for commercial purposes.
He stated that the university’s initiative was born out of its commitment “to reduce carbon emissions” cost of petrol which had gone up in Nigeria and support government efforts in providing alternatives for PMS.
One of the CNG-converted Vehicles
Showcasing some of the converted vehicles before Journalists, an expert in the university’s Centre for Sustainable Energy, Engineer Abdulazeez Akande, of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering said the cost of conversion was affordable ranging between N1.2 to 1.5 million to convert from PMS to CNG depending on the size of the engine and N6million to electric.
He further confirmed that one kg of CNG which presently goes for N230 would cover 13 kilometers and the battery life span of electric vehicles would last between 8-10 years.
