Students of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Edo State University, Uzairue have embarked on a knowledge driven tour to BUA Group-Obu Cement Plant, Okpella, and Modula refinery in the state with a view to having a first hand knowledge of the workings of the facilities of the companies as well as productions.
The Acting Head, Department of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Francis Dayo, who led the tour, said the visit was to expose the students practically to most of the things they have learnt in the classroom. He said the tour which involved staff and students of the department was to give them the opportunity to ask practical questions during the tour.
BUA Tour guard, Engr. Nazir Baba, who led the students on the tour of the company, while highlighting safety of the environment, advised them to be safety conscious in the course of the tour.
“Obu Cement Plant basically deals with raw materials to produce cements. The operation of the industry include, the quarry site where raw materials are harvested for processing and some of these materials include Limestone, aluminum, Iron ore, silicon, laterite among others”.
Baba said “The students also visit different sections of the factory where the raw materials are being refined to have a grasp of the facilities as crushing and grinding units, various milling units, blending and the mixing unit down to the kiln and clinical unit before the bagging or packaging section of the cement production”.
“Other areas in the power plant visited by the students include, crowd control room building that houses the physical laboratory, preparatory laboratory, control room, x-ray room for material analysis and quality control. Also speaking, one of the students and Departmental Representative, Ogbeta Princess Omolayo, said the tour was an eye opener and encouraged other students of the faculty to always make use of such opportunity to enhance their knowledge.
Earlier, the acting departmental head of Chemical Engineering further disclosed that the student also paid a one-day visit to the Edo Modular Refinery, in Ologbo, for on the site learning.
“The students and staff of the department were shown round some of the plant facilities such as control room, quality assurance laboratory, and the physical unit used for distillation. ”
Other facilities visited were the farm tanks for crude and refined products storage, the utility unit, the heat exchangers, distillation column, furnace, blowers, gas flaring unit, pipes, valves among others. He said the plant which was developed by Edo Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited (ERPC) with support from the state government was designed to process Nigerian crude oil and contribute its quota to the national grid.