A great challenge in water electrolysis is how to optimize the major factors that influence the production of hydrogen gas. Over the past years, different methods have been used to produce hydrogen gas from carbon-base fossil fuels but these methods have been proven to be environmentally unfriendly due to the enormous release of greenhouse gases associated with their use. In this work, an experimental study was carried out to evaluate the effect of electrolyte strength, voltage and time on the volume of HHO gas produced using a design built HHO gas generator. The generator was constructed from Stainless Steel 316 L plates made of 3 anodes, 3 cathodes, and 20 neutral plates. During the study, the strengths of KOH, NaOH, and NaHCO 3 was prepared within the range of 0.010 M-0.030 M. The prepared strengths for each catalyst were then varied across voltage range of 9 V to 13 V for 50 seconds. The experimental results obtained showed that, increasing electrolyte strength, voltage and time proportionally increased the yield of HHO gas. An optimal yield rate of 2.27 cm 3 /s of HHO gas was obtained when the generator was run at 13 V using 0.025 M KOH. In addition, other factors studied including electrode surface morphology, plate's configuration, and temperature also showed improvement in yield of HHO gas by 41.85%, 69.74%, and 71.96% respectively.

Palm kernel shell and coconut shell are used as a precursor for the production of activated carbon, a way of mitigating the tons of waste produced in Ghana. The raw Palm kernel shell and coconut shell were activated chemically using H3PO4. A maximum activated carbon yield of 26.3 g was obtained for Palm kernel shell and 22.9 g for coconut shell at 400oC, an impregnation ratio of 1.2 and 1-hour carbonization time. Scanning electron microscopy reveals well-developed cavities of the H3PO4 activated coconut shell and Palm kernel shell compared to the non-activated carbon. Iodine number of 743.02 mg/g and 682.11 mg/g, a porosity of 0.31 and 0.49 and the electrical conductivity of 2010 μS/cm and 778 μS /cm were obtained for the AC prepared from the coconut shell and Palm kernel shell respectively. The results of this work show that high-quality activated carbon can be manufactured locally from coconut shell and Palm kernel shell waste, and a scale-up of this production will go a long way to reduce the tons of coconut shell and Palm kernel shell waste generated in the country.

A comparative analysis study of pH and temperature effects on the anaerobic digestion process of different agricultural wastes was carried out during the production of biogas. The investigation was in two phases. Phase one involved the use of a single substrate of cow dung, cassava peels, yam peels and pineapple peels while the second involved co-digestion of the substrates with cow dung. The composition of gas produced by a single substrate and a mixture of these substrates were determined. The feedstock for each experiment was a 1:1 mixture of the substrates with water. For the co-digestion, one part of the substrate and one part of cow dung were used with two parts of water, making the ratio 1:1:2. Routine measurements of pH and temperature of the feedstock were taken and the composition of the produced biogas was determined. It was deduced that cow dung co-digested with cassava peels gave a higher yield with methane content of 65.3% followed by cow dung only, co-digestion of cow dung and yam peels, cassava peels only, yam peels only and pineapple peels with 63.4%, 51.4%, 46.2%, 42.3% and 0.0%, respectively. Therefore co-digestion, with cow dung and cassava peels is most efficient for biogas production.

The International Atomic Energy Agency defines a nuclear and radiation accident as an occurrence that leads to the release of radiation causing significant consequences to people, the environment, or the facility. During such an event involving a nuclear reactor, the reactor core is a critical component which when damaged, will lead to the release of significant amounts of radionuclides. Assessment of the radiation effect that emanates from reactor accidents is very paramount when it comes to the safety of people and the environment; whether or not the released radiation causes an exposure rate above the recommended threshold nuclear reactor safety. During safety analysis in the nuclear industry, radiological accident analyses are usually carried out based on hypothetical scenarios. Such assessments mostly define the effect associated with the accident and when and how to apply the appropriate safety measures. In this study, a typical radiological assessment was carried out on the Ghana Research Reactor-1. The study considered the available reactor core inventory, released radionuclides, radiation doses and detailed process of achieving all the aforementioned parameters. Oak Ridge isotope generation-2 was used for core inventory calculations and Hotspot 3.01 was also used to model radionuclides dispersion trajectory and calculate the released doses. Some of the radionuclides that were considered include I-131, Sr-90, Cs-137, and Xe-137. Total effective doses equivalent to released radionuclides, the ground deposition activity and the respiratory time-integrated air concentration were estimated. The maximum total effective doses equivalent value of 5.6 × 10−9 Sv was estimated to occur at 0.1 km from the point of release. The maximum ground deposition activity was estimated to be 2.5 × 10−3 kBq/m3 at a distance of 0.1 km from the release point. All the estimated values were found to be far below the annual regulatory limits of 1 mSv for the general public as stated in IAEA BSS GSR part 3.

Spent Catalytic Catalyst (SCC) is a siliceous and aluminous material residue produced by the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Limited of Ghana, which pose environmental concerns. The SCC has therefore been used as a partial replacement for Portland cement in sandcrete blocks production. The properties of the sandcrete blocks are therefore examined and reported in this study. Partial replacement of Portland cement in the sandcrete blocks was done within the range of 5% to 20% (by mass) with an increment of 5%. The compressive strength, water absorption and setting time data between the control and with the SCC additives were made. The results obtained show that XRD pattern of SCC is dominantly zeolites and that, the partial replacement of portland cement with 10 wt. % of SCC gave the highest sandcrete block compressive strength of 34.0 N/mm2.

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