Increase in organic waste generation, dwindling nature of global oil reserves coupled with environmental challenges caused by waste oil disposal and burning of fossil fuels necessitated the need for alternative energy resources. Waste cooking oil obtained from the frying fish outlet was analyzed for its physicochemical properties using ASTM D-975 methods. Acid and Iodine values of the oil were 30.43 ± 0.32 mgKOH/g and 57.08 ± 0.43 mgI2/100 g respectively. Thermo-chemical conversion of the oil using NiO/SiO2 at different reaction conditions (pressure, temperature, and catalyst concentration) at a residence time of 3 h yielded 33.63% hydrocarbons. Hydro-catalytic pyrolysis of waste cooking oil at 400 °C, H2 pressure of 15 bars, and catalyst to oil ratio of 0.25 g/100 cm3 resulted in highest hydrocarbon yield (41.98%). The fuel properties of the product were: cetane number (71.16), high heating value (41.43 MJ/kg), kinematic viscosity (2.01 mm2/s), density (0.94 g/ml), saponification value (185.1 ± 3.96 mgKOH/g), and iodine value (20.57 ± 0.20 I2/100 g) respectively. These results show that the NiO/SiO2 could be a suitable catalyst for conversion of waste vegetable oil to hydrocarbons.

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This study was conducted to compare the combustion properties of briquettes produced from carbonized Martynia annua woody shells and wood charcoal. Two different briquette samples were produced: Sample (A), is made up of carbonized shells powder plus starch as binding agent while Sample (B), consists of carbonized shells plus waste paper as binding agent. The parameters investigated include calorific value, ignition time, burning rate, and specific fuel consumption. Water boiling time and time taking by the Samples to burn to ashes were also determined. Water boiling time of the briquettes Sample A competed favorably with wood charcoal. Sample B has the lowest calorific value (5479.31 ± 4.14cal/g), wood charcoal (6815.12±0.53cal/g) was the highest, followed closely by fuel briquettes Sample A (6811.18 ± 4.33cal/g). The calorific values of Sample A and wood charcoal were not significantly different (P>0.05). The burning rate of the fuel briquettes and wood charcoal ranged from 3.16 ± 0.06 g/min in Sample A to 3.03 ± 0.05 g/min. The time taken by Sample A and wood charcoal to burn to ashes were 95.0 ± 2.5 min. and 99.2 ± 4.2 minutes respectively. Briquettes sample B took 73.5 ± 3.2 min to completely burn to ashes. The values for the water boiling time and specific fuel consumption for Sample A and wood charcoal were also not significantly different (P>0.05). Sample B has the shortest ignition time and highest burning rate compare to Sample A and wood charcoal. The results confirmed that, the fuel briquettes from carbonized Martynia annua woody shells can serve as supplement or alternative energy sources to wood charcoal for domestic cooking and heating.

The aim of this research paper was to ascertain the optimum conditions required to economical synthesis carboxymethylated starch using experimental design technique by Taguchi for Larger-is-better and smaller-is better of reaction efficiency (RE). Orthogonal Array method was utilized in the design of the experiment which consisted of eighteen (18) runs based on three (3) independent Factors which are; Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) with three concentration levels (1, 1.5, and 2.0M), Sodium monochloroacetate (SMCA) with three concentration levels (1, 1.5, and 2.0M) and Reaction Time (T) with two (2) levels (2 and 4 hours) respectively and the response is reaction efficiency (R.E). The result obtained from the experiment was interpreted using the Taguchi method of larger-is-better and smaller-is-better was apply to estimate the Response for Signal-to-Noise Ratios. The analysis showed that for larger-is-better, the optimal condition to obtain high reaction efficiency (R.E.) of 9.97%, will require NaOH at 2.0 M, SMCA at 1.0 M, at reaction period of, while for smaller-is-better, the optimal condition to obtain low reaction efficiency (RE) of 1.93 %, will required the concentration of NaOH (aq) and SMCA (aq) to be 1.5 M and 1.5 M with a reaction period (T) of 4 hours respectively. The result was also study the influence of variable SMCA (aq) and NaOH (aq) concentrations on swelling capacity (SC) at reaction time of 2 hours. The result shows that 2M NaOH is the optimum concentration for carboxymethyl starch (CMS) synthesis. .Significant difference was ascertained using Tukey method, and at 95% Confidence level.

Despite many calls from both the government and non governmental agencies, there was still low enrolment level of the female students, poor participation and their frequent withdrawal in schools in Sokoto state. This research was conducted to identify the reasons why they withdrew from schools and the motivating factor for their re-joining schools after a long break. The sample consisted of 300 students who were all females in categories of single, married, divorced and widows, selected randomly from Women Centre for Continuing Education, Sokoto. Fifty other respondents that consisted of teachers of the school, civil servants, NGO's and self employed people. A 24 item self designed questionnaire was administered to the respondents. The study found out that the establishment of the Women Centre for Continuing Education, and the conducive learning environment in the school helped motivate the re-joining of the school by the dropouts. Also that the students both single, married, divorced and widowed have almost the same views of re-joining the school. It was recommended that more of these schools should be established in all the local governments in the state. Also education should be made totally free for women, and more enlightenment campaigns on laws prohibiting withdrawal of females from school should be carried out by the government.

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Biomass pyrolysis is a thermo-chemical conversion process that is of both industrial and ecological importance. The efficient chemical transformation of waste biomass to numerous products via pyrolysis reactions depends on process kinetic rates; hence the need for kinetic models to best design and operate the pyrolysis. Also, for an efficient design of an environmentally sustainable pyrolysis process of a specific lignocellulosic waste, a proper understanding of its thermo-kinetic behavior is imperative. Thus, pyrolysis kinetics of castor seed de-oiled cake (Ricinus communis) using thermogravimetric technique was studied. The decomposition of the cake was carried out in a nitrogen atmosphere with a flow rate of 100mL min-1 from ambient temperature to 900 °C. The results of the thermal profile showed moisture removal and devolatilization stages, and maximum decomposition of the cake occurred at a temperature of 200-400 °C. The kinetic parameters such as apparent activation energy, pre-exponential factor, and order of reaction were determined using Friedman (FD), Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS), and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO) kinetic models. The average apparent activation energy values of 124.61, 126.95 and 129.80 kJmol-1 were calculated from the slopes of the respective models. The apparent activation energy values obtained depends on conversion, which is an evidence of multi-step kinetic process during the pyrolytic decomposition of the cake. The kinetic data would be of immense benefit to model, design and develop a suitable thermo-chemical system for the conversion of waste de-oil cake to energy carrier.

The proximate, minerals constituents and anti-nutritional factors of Hura crepitans seeds were evaluated. The results of the proximate analysis showed that 3.13%, 4.00%, 7.83%, 33.17%, 17.30%, 8.17%, 29.53% were the percentage composition of moisture, ash, crude lipid, crude protein, fibre and carbohydrate respectively. The calorific value was obtained to be 485.85±7.22 kJ/kg. The anti-nutritional analysis showed that phytate had the highest concentration of 20.28±0.90 while oxalate has the lowest concentration of 0.017±0.15 mg/100g dry weight respectively. The mineral analysis of Hura crepitans seed also indicates that K has the highest value of 238.33 mg/100g dry weight while Cd with a value 0.71±0.01 mg/100g dry weight has the least. The result shows that the H. crepitans seeds if properly utilized can serve as good source of minerals.Keywords: Anti-nutritional, Hura crepitans, Proximate, Mineral, Nutritional