The Power of CSIR Institute of Industrial Research – Napoleon Ato Kittoe writes PART-1

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR Ghana, has at least thirteen specialized institutes, plus colleges and research fields. In this article, I focus on the Institute of Industrial Research, CSIR-IIR, located on Boundary Road in East Legon, Accra.

IIR is the backbone of industry — its brain pool and fallback support system. In this essay, there are alternations between what looks like metaphor and explicit metrics, Research scientists at IIR improve standard and traditional processes, which is key to reigniting systems and reforming them for efficiency.

Few people realize that the medicinal compounds, or active ingredients, in plants — known as herbal medicines — are best extracted by these scientists. Some extracts help fight insomnia. Beyond medicine, the extracts can be used as flavors needed by the cosmetics industry. For exports, extracting mineral or chemical deposits from plants eliminates the inconvenience of shipping bulky raw material across borders. Reports show the export value of active plant parts such as roots, seeds, and flavors keeps rising. With support from the Export, Trade and Agricultural Development Fund, these operations are expected to expand.

The institute is also an authority on incinerators. Evidence of this is the many incinerators IIR has built for health centers. Collected refuse is reduced to ash in a furnace. The ash, which contains calcium, can be used as manure on farms. For example, the white ash from burning twenty tons of waste over four months can be mixed with by-products from biodigesters — both solid and liquid — to create effective fertilizers. Composite materials like recycled wood and plastics often nourish plants better than wood alone.

IIR also operates autoclaves for burning medical waste, killing germs that could infect people if dumped openly. According to Dr William Oduro, dangerous gases from open burning are captured by incinerators. Only a slight amount of smoke emits from their chimneys, yet 180 kilograms of waste can be burned in a day. Microorganisms need about 30°C to grow. The extreme heat produced — 900°C to 2,000°C in the facility — kills any organism. It’s like using a sledgehammer to kill an ant. Firewood starts the fire and a fan inflames it inside the chamber. This procedure, called “lean burning,” works like car fuel injectors that combine fuel and air in precise amounts for programmed results. Studies show many garbage pickers contract diseases from contaminants, even while wearing gloves. District Assemblies can adopt incinerator systems to ease pressure on landfills and reduce roadside refuse heaps. Communities can follow suit. Incinerators can potentially reduce organic waste sent to landfills by 90 percent.

As manufacturers of biodigesters, the Institute shows us how to convert human waste into fertilizer for agricultural lands, boosting productivity. Through biodigesters, what society finds repugnant is safely, hygienically, and beneficially recycled. The machine can also process other discarded organic matter. Biodigesters are better substitutes for septic tanks, which risk contaminating underground water. With biodigesters, there’s no fecal sludge to treat. The anaerobic process destroys pathogens. The equipment can also analyze agricultural residue or biomass to determine the energy content, or calorific value, in effluence or solid feces. CSIR-IIR pioneered this technology in Ghana, building fixed biodigesters in Appolonia, a suburb of Accra, as early as 1986.

The carbonization unit burns biomass — agricultural waste — to produce charcoal. New research proves that fecal matter can also be converted into charcoal. However, this faces a cultural barrier owing to the source of the material. Public education appears to be the main arsenal in the closets to defeat the stigma. This leads me to cook-stove technology which is calibrated to emit zero smoke or extremely little of it. CSIR-IIR recommends this cook-stove technology to hotels, restaurants, and kitchen operators for efficiency and minimal carbon emissions.

The science of measurement, known as metrology, is an uptick in developed countries. It eliminates ambiguity and brings organization and certainty to many spheres of human endeavor. In 2019 when I visited IIR, Dr Ebenezer Neequaye Kotey was head of this unit. When he retired, the man who demonstrated cook-stoves and biodigesters to my team at the time, Dr Kofi Amponsah Benefo, replaced him. Everything we do relates to measurements. Sensing devices measure pressure, temperature, and weight. Medicine is dispensed in grammes, malls sell items by mass, electricity is measured in voltage, calibrations use frequencies, and acoustic measurements like traffic noise pollution use decibels. As at 2019, IIR’s acoustic calibration system was the only one in Ghana. In conducting these measurements, the laboratories are cordoned off to avoid air current or micrograms that could affect readings.

Of much interest to me is the Pressure Lab, which has two components. One deals with hydraulic, or oil, pressure and the other with pneumatic, or air pressure. The lab calibrates pressure gauges for gas and petroleum pipelines, autoclaves, and industrial boilers. Tuna fish, boiled in autoclaves, must be measured — if heat exceeds a certain threshold, there could be explosion. Hospital oxygen tanks, rain gauges, and earthquake sensors also rely on pressure gauges.

Beyond waste and energy, CSIR-IIR is quietly solving Ghana’s packaging and materials problem. The institute tests and upgrades local materials like cassava starch, sawdust, and recycled plastics to produce packaging that can compete with imports. For small manufacturers who can’t afford foreign materials, this work cuts costs and keeps money circulating locally. When a soap maker in Kumasi can source biodegradable wrap from Boundary Road instead of China, that’s industrial sovereignty in practice.

The institute also serves as a training ground. Students, technicians, and factory managers come to IIR for short courses on quality control, food processing, and waste management. They don’t just learn theory. They test machines, analyze samples, and troubleshoot real production problems. This “fallback support system” means that when a factory’s machine breaks down or a product fails standards, IIR scientists are the first call. In that sense, IIR doesn’t just create technology — it protects existing industries from collapse.

Ghana’s development challenge is not lack of resources. It’s turning those resources into reliable systems. CSIR-IIR embodies that turn. From extracting sleeplessness cures in plants, to burning 180 kilograms of medical waste without smoke, to converting feces into farm fertilizer and charcoal, to calibrating the gauges that keep our boilers safe, the institute proves Prof. Ali Mazuri right: “Resources are not, but they become.” Across CSIR, and especially at IIR, applications turn minerals, plastics, wood, and waste into useful products. If District Assemblies, startups, and farmers use IIR more deliberately, Ghana can build an economy where waste becomes input, and input becomes wealth. That is the real power at work on Boundary Road.