Nigeria requires new energy systems to address hydroelectric power —Olaitan

Damola Olaitan is a First Class graduate currently specialising in environmental engineering for his post-graduate programmes at Princeton University, United States. In this interview with KINGSLEY ALUMONA, he spoke about his work, innovative energy systems, and environmental problems, among others.

YOUR doctoral work focuses on ecohydrology with an emphasis on soil biogeochemistry, microbial systems, nutrient cycling, and the food-water-energy nexus.

How do you explain this to a layman?

Soil microbes are quite small in size, but their influence can be detrimental to human life in general. My PhD is focused on understanding their responsibilities in the cycling and global budget of important nutrients such as carbon, hydrogen, and methane. With a changing climate, there is a pressing need to also understand how microbial life is influenced and how they, in turn, impact the global budget of the nutrients mentioned above. In addition, water is a limited resource (in some regions), and my research examines how to carefully integrate new water-demandingsystems without causing water stress in regions with low water availability.

What specific problem does your PhD thesis set out to address, and how can it be of significance to Nigeria’s environmental problems?

My PhD thesis intends to address two things: one, the safe integration of new energy systems without systematically creating new environmental problems; and, two, the impact of varying soil hydrologic conditions on soil microbial communities and how they in turn affect the global budgets of important nutrients such as carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. Its significance to Nigeria’s environmental problem is more related to energy resilience. In Nigeria, we require new energy systems to buffer the shortage of hydroelectric power and with new energy systems come new environmental concerns that need to be understood and solved for safe integration.

What three environmental problems would you say Nigeria has and how would you go about addressing them?

First, the Nigerian energy sector needs a huge buffer. We need to consider novel and scalable renewable energy systems such as solar, wind, or hydrogen power to serve as an alternative during downtimes of hydroelectric power. Secondly, Nigeria currently has an “emissions problem” which stems from the large-scale deployment of alternative power, gas and diesel generators. Thirdly, several cities currently lack a proper waste management system; therefore, a “waste-to-resource” programme is essential and important to transition to a pristine economy. Growing up in Lagos, I have witnessed this firsthand, and I still see complaints on X (formerly Twitter) about the inappropriate dumping of refuse, which takes up nearly a whole lane on the highways.

You co-authored ‘The water footprint of hydrogen production’ in 2024. What is the significance of this work, especially as it relates to water, biomass, and renewable energy production?

This work investigated the amount of water required to produce hydrogen across various pathways, and we went further to quantify the impacts on the global energy-water footprint when hydrogen is systematically introduced to the global energy mix. Our results suggest that hydrogen can either increase or decrease the global water footprint for energy, depending on the production pathway of hydrogen. In essence, green hydrogen (produced from water with renewable energy as the electricity source) can reduce the global water footprint, whereas blue hydrogen (produced from coal or natural gas) increases the global water footprint. This is also true on several national scales, except in regions with originally high national water footprints (e.g., Brazil), where blue hydrogen can reduce thenational water footprint.

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You also co-authored ‘Modelling dynamics of hydrogen-oxidising bacteria under pulsing soil moisture conditions’, which is under review. What are the major findings of this work, and how do they impact soil, the atmosphere, and the climate?

The increased demand for hydrogen energy raised questions of increased fugitive emissions of hydrogen. This research was aimed at understanding the dynamics of the microbial class residing in the soil that are responsiblefor the removal of atmospheric hydrogen, and went further to examine the influence of including their dynamics in the estimation of deposition velocity, a crucial metric in quantifying the atmospheric hydrogen sink. Our results showed substantial improvements in the estimation of the deposition velocity when the dynamics of these microbes are considered as opposed to when they are not.

What is the role of artificial intelligence in the kind of work you do or do you have reservations about using AI for teaching and research activities?

The role of AI definitely comes with both pros and cons. AI, in its efficiency, can save you time on specific tasks, as well as respond to more streamlined questions that could take a longer time to find answers to through other resources or search engines. However, excessive use of AI limits our actual learning, impacts classroom dynamics, peer interactions, and the social experience of learning. Yes, I do have my reservations, and I think it is best we only use these tools when necessary, rather than habitually.

What is your advice to Nigerian engineering faculties and scholars on innovative teaching and research, especially as it is done at Princeton University?

I think the Nigerian educational system is constantly evolving, and I must say I am impressed with the shift to embrace technology. According to the recent CVs I have reviewed, the thesis titles depict a pedagogic shift from the orthodox laboratory and experimental setup towards a more theoretical and technological one that adopts programming, numerical simulations, machine learning, and many more.

My advice would be to ensure the Nigerian education system continues to embrace these global changes and keep on the trajectory to continually evolve its teachings and research.

How would you describe your academic journey from Nigeria to the United States?

There is quite a contrast between learning in Nigeria and learning in the United States. In Nigeria, homework was more like a simple test of knowledge, and the professor used their sole discretion whether to consider it in final grades or not. However, in the US, they reflect an instantaneous contribution to your grades, which was an initial shock to me upon transitioning. The workload was a little different, but I will attribute this to the demand of graduate studies, which are supposed to be more demanding compared to undergraduate studies.

I managed most of these challenges because I keep good notes. For example, I travelled to the US with all my notes from my 300 to 500 level because I believed the fundamental concepts they contain would serve their purpose when I need to reflect back on knowledge I have come across in the past.

You graduated with a First Class in civil engineering as an undergrad but now specialising in environmental engineering for your master’s and PhD programmes. Why this shift in specialisation?

I did not necessarily have a shift in specialisation. During my undergraduate studies at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria, we were also introduced to the fundamental classes of water resources and environmental engineering, which served as cornerstones to my specialisation for the master’s and PhD programmes.