(A column highlighting scientific, technological, engineering, and design innovation in Africa)
Burundese-born chemical engineer and entrepreneur Jean Bosco Kazirukanyo, Ph.D., founder and managing director of the Advanced Cement Training & Projects Institute (ACTP), invented a new type of cement that effectively contains and recycles ecologically harmful oil spills.
Dubbed “Oil Spill” (“OSP”) cement, Kazirukanyo’s invention protects water against carcinogenic oil spills. Sprinkled on fresh or old lubricant and oil spills, it reacts with the contaminants to form tiny lumps that are easily removed and deposited in designated plastic bins. The lumps then can be recycled as concrete additives.
“OSP” cement earned Kazirukanyo one of 10 finalist spots in the fourth (2015) edition of the Innovation Prize for Africa.
Currently being disposed of in an unsustainable manner across Africa, oil spills are causing huge ecological damage on the continent, especially in Nigeria. Earlier this year, for example, Royal Dutch Shell agreed to pay the Nigerian fishing community of Ogoniland about $83.5 million for what is reported as the worst oil spill ever suffered in the country’s southern delta region. The UN Environment Program estimates it could take up to 30 years to fully rehabilitate the community and the thousands of hectares of mangrove that were affected.
Kazirukanyo is considered one of Africa’s top experts in cement process technology and cement chemistry. He holds a Ph.D. in applied chemical science and a master’s in international relations from the Free University of Brussels, Belgium; a bachelor’s in chemical engineering and master’s in cement chemistry and process from Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, Russia; and a chemical weapons protection chief instructor certificate from the NBC academy in Switzerland.
His ACTP institute, located in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the first of its kind in Africa, provides world-class advanced cement training courses and cement-related research and development services to the cement, mortars, concrete, mining, building and civil engineering industries in sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa is one of the world’s top five producers/consumers of cement.
Kazirukanyo also is a co-founder of Spearhead Network for Innovative, Safe and Clean Cement & Concrete Technologies (SPIN), a consortium of academic and research institutions from Burundi, Croatia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Germany, Mozambique, Netherlands, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.
His innovation is all the more remarkable when you consider that the cement industry alone generates 5 percent of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, along with dust and other harmful chemicals.
