Cooking gas dey safe and cheaper to power generator?

Since Nigeria goment announce say dem don comot hand from subsidy for petrol on 29 May, 2023 prices don almost triple for Nigeria and some West African kontris.

Barely two days afta di swearing-in of President Bola Tinubu, di Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) bring new prices for petrol across di kontri.

From di new prices wey NNPCL bring out, di price of petrol jump from N198 Nigerian naira to N537 per litre.

Dis don make Nigerians begin look for oda ways to power dia generators, sake of say one of di major problems for Nigeria na power outage.

Different goment administrations for Nigeria dey try to make electricity dey stable for di highly populated West African kontri but e neva work.

Because of dis fact, many Nigerians dey rely on oda sources of power like solar energy and mostly generators powered by petrol and recently, reports say cooking gas don join.

E dey possible to convert fuel generator to use cooking gas?

Fotos and videos of dis trend don full social media as some marketers dey advertise am and pipo wey don use am too dey share dia experiences.

BBC Pidgin tok to experts for di Oil and Gas Industry for Nigeria and all of dem make am clear so true-true e dey possible to use cooking gas power generator.

Uche Chieke wey be Pipeline Infrastructure safety officer explain say "Cooking gas na methane, wey dey support combustion even for internal combustion engines like generator".

Wetin dey burn for fuel mainly na di vapor not di liquid."

Anoda expert wey be Oil and Gas Consultant and Graduate Researcher Petroleum and Gas Engineering for di University of Port Harcourt, Ejie Kemkanma tell BBC Pidgin say "with di evolvement of technology now you fit use Liquified Petroleum gas wey be cooking gas as against di Compressed Natural gas to power equipment".

Im also tok say e dey economical sake of say e dey cheaper compared to di prices of petrol now.

E dey safe for generator to use cooking gas?

Safety of dis trending process na one of di ogbonge questions wey pipo dey ask about.

One twitter user for im tweet ask about di safety of running generator wey cooking gas dey power.

To ansa dis question, some experts wey follow BBC Pidgin tok explain weda e dey safe or not.

Di Pipeline Infrastructure Safety officer Uche Chieke wey also be Chemical Engineer say" to use cooking gas power generator dey 100 percent safe so far as e no get any leakage"

"Even though e no dey entirely renewable, natural gas na one of di cleanest burning fossil fuels around.

In terms of greenhouse gas, e dey produce around half di sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury.

E dey generate fewer emissions therefore, e dey less regulated meaning say to get a permit to operate one dey much easier."

But Oil and Gas Consultant, Ejie Kemkanma say "even though di cooking gas dey safe to use pipo need to consider how dem dey handle di gas bottle"

For domestic use, you fit use petrol and e no go cause di kind harm wey gas cylinder dey cause, but for gas emissions (di gas wey dey come out from di exhaust pipe) e dey safer to use cooking gas pass di petrol ."

How dem dey do di LPG and CNG conversions?

With adverts of conversion of petrol generator to cooking gas generator di question wey pipo dey ask again na, wetin be di authentic and safest way to do dis conversion.

"E get caburator wey dey use Compressed Natural Gas to work with, so dem go disconnect dis caburator wey dey use petrol come put di one wey dey use gas." Uche Chieke tok.

Anoda Mechanical Engineer tell BBC Pidgin say "di same way wey dem dey convert generators from using petrol to gas, na di same way dem dey convert cars too from using petrol to gas."

Even though some of di experts agree say e dey cheaper, odas say di difference no dey too much compared to petrol.

E really dey economical?

BBC Pidgin follow Anume Wobo wey don convert her generator from petrol to cooking gas tok.

"Afta technicians advice us say e dey cheaper to use gas power our generators we decide to do am.

E no dey as economical as we tink say e go be sake of say di gas dey finish fast -fast.

I dey use like N6000 naira to fuel my generator for one night, di gas na about N8000 for one night.

Di last time I fill my gas na on Saturday 20 June, 2023, I dey on my Generator around 7pm for night and if light no dey at all e go carry me till morning.

But for di gas I fill am on Saturday and by Tuesday e don finish, e last for only two days while di fuel dey last for three days.

"I feel like say e beta to go back to di fuel because I neva really see how economical e dey."

Di experts add say research still dey go on and dem dey still try to get beta statistics on di number of pipo wey dey use cooking gas power dia generators and cars for Nigeria.

However, di Edo State Goment, South -South Nigeria say over 5000 vehicles dey use Compressed natural gas (CNG).

Dis na wetin di Govnor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki tell tori pipo for di state capital.

“Data from NIPCO Gas, one joint-venture company between NIPCO and Nigeria Gas Company Limited (NGC), indicate say over 5,600 vehicles for Benin City run on Compressed Natural Gas afta dem roll out di initiative for 2007 and commission am for 2009,”

Im dey encourage investors to use oda sources of energy like natural gas sake of subsidy removal.

Meanwhile, prices of cooking gas bin drop lately but pipo say di difference no too much.

According to Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Neiti report,

Nigeria don spend N13.7 trillion on fuel subsidy for di last 13 years.