FEATURE STORY

VACUUM PUMP – A SOLUTION TO OIL EXTRACTING PROBLEMS IN NIGERIA

-          BY AJAYI FAITH

Basically, one of the major problems in the oil industry in Nigeria is pollution control in oil extraction. This brought about the idea of Vacuum Pumps. This vacuum pump was the final year project of a Covenant University graduate, Mr. Joshua Medugbe, a Mechanical Engineering student, who says that his lecturer in his department emphasizes on one’s project being a solution to a problem.

The problem in the oil industries in Nigeria is that the pumps they use have direct contact to the fluid extract. So the aim of the Vacuum Pump actually has a versatile edge when their having a system that the pump itself does not have any direct contact with the fluid which is extracted. This eradicates the problem of corrosion and the in pedals fading into crevices also caused by corrosion.

The function of the Vacuum Pump is to create a vacuum in a containing vessel and the benefit of this is, it naturally absorbs the fluid into the pump when a certain output valve is released and all other valve are shut up.

The concept is now applicable to people in the oil industry  because the Vacuum Pump is used to create the Vacuums in large  tanks or pressure vessels and able to transfer waste from  whatever location you want to get from and this will have no contact with the pump itself at any point. So as a result, the pump life span is increasing immensely from 6 months to 1 year period maximum you can get as high as 5 years life span from the pump and the only thing that might need changing at any point in time is the Vanes and also replacing of the oil in the pumps. It is a cost effective way of solving the problem and at the same time it is an effective method because what is being used is the natural absorption and packing.

The Vacuum Pump is now being used by oil industries like WRPC (Warri Refining And Petrochemicals Corporate LTD), ANPC (Australian Network for Plant Conservation), and NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation).