Researcher invents AI learning model to check Africa’s energy crisis, environmental pollution in N’Delta
Nigerian researcher, Chiagoziem C. Ukwuoma has unveiled a deep learning model that predicts hydrogen production from biomass gasification with unprecedented accuracy. In a major leap toward sustainable energy solutions for Africa.
Ukwuoma in his study titled ‘Sequential Gated Recurrent and Self Attention Explainable Deep Learning Model for Predicting Hydrogen Production: Implications and Applicability,’ said the model would address critical challenges in Nigeria and the entire Africa, including over reliance on polluting fossil fuels, environmental degradation in oil-rich regions like the Niger Delta, and the urgent need for clean, renewable energy sources to combat climate change and health crises.
The innovation combines gated recurrent units (GRU) with self-attention mechanisms to capture temporal patterns in biomass data with near-perfect results, which include a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 0.102, Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of 0.160, and Coefficient of Determination (R²) of 0.999.
The model, leveragies explainable AI tools like SHAP and LIME, identifies key factors such as the percentage of plastics in mixtures and particle size, making predictions transparent and trustworthy for real-world applications. This breakthrough uses abundant African biomass, such as agricultural waste from rubber seed shells and plastics, to produce hydrogen, a clean fuel that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and replace dirty oil-based energy.
The research directly confronts Nigeria’s energy challenges where over 70 percent of the population coming from fossil fuels amid frequent blackouts and pollution in the Niger Delta. Ukwuoma’s research model will optimise hydrogen production from local waste, potentially cutting CO2 and methane emissions by 15 percent while creating jobs in green energy sectors.
Across Africa, where biomass potential could reach 110 EJ by 2050, this AI tool supports the continent’s transition to net-zero, aligning with goals like the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan. The research result, achieved with experts like Prof. Dongsheng Cai and funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, emphasises practical implications that enhances biomass gasification efficiency, complying with environmental regulations, and lowering costs for hydrogen as a fuel for transport, power, and industry.
The achievement has been commended by the Society of Technology and Energy Professionals (STEP) as vital for holding oil companies accountable and promoting bioenergy.
