The quest for alternative energy sources is gradually shifting from natural fossil fuel to alternative bio-resources especially agricultural waste products due to their reduced pollution risk and sustainability. This study seeks to investigate the suitability of plant residue pellets to produce biomass. The plant residues investigated include; 100% granulated corn cob residues, 100% granulated corn stalks and a composite of 50:50 granulated corn cobs and stalk residues. The residues were compressed at 200 MPa and pelletized using cassava starch as a binder. The pellets were experimentally analyzed using emission, ultimate, proximate and calorimetry analyses. The result showed that the cobstalk 50:50 combination had the most desirable properties. It has 0.64% nitrogen, 48.57% carbon, 0.38% Sulphur, 6.22% hydrogen, 55.81% oxygen, 3.25% moisture content, 2.20% ash content, 80.0% volatile matter, 17.80% fixed carbon percentage, HHV of 32.9 kJ/kg, an average CO2 of 563±50 PPM, an average CO of 100±50 PPM, and an average value relative humidity of 69±4%. The study reiterates that corn residues are a good bio-fuel and should be encouraged to address the current energy shortfalls.

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The challenges of carrying agricultural loads and forestry products were rightly identified as essentially the rural dwellers burden. Little efforts have been made to have an adaptive mobility frame (attached to bicycle and motorcycle) to carry goods and products from the point of harvest to the point of sales (the markets), a situation that leads to systematic rot of agriculture products on the farms, leading to low revenue and productivity of the rural people. Therefore, the goal of this research is to develop an improved carriage (trailer) to bicycle and motorcycle for goods mobility in rural areas of Nigeria. The design criteria for these trailers include: lightness in weight; ease of usage; flexibility; adaptability with various bicycle and motorcycle types; low cost of engineering materials, durability and availability of materials; and it is required that the trailer carries 200 kg load on smooth road (tarred and untarred). Factors considered for this design include; weight of the rider, weight of bicycle and motorcycle, type of road, type of load and factor of safety. Three different trailer designs were developed for the bicycle namely fixed plate design (FPD), convertible plate design (CPD) and wire mesh design (WMD), while the motorcycle trailers developed are the fixed plate design (FPD) and the convertible plate design (CPD). The hitch system used for the WMD bicycle trailer was a conventional universal joint and collar attached to the trailer front frame and the hitch system for the bicycle and motorcycle FPD and CPD comprises an annular of heavy duty cylindrical cone housing and a bolt. These designs are due in part to their simplicity, availability and ease of replacement for rural dwellers. Preliminary evaluations have shown satisfactory performance based on the load carrying capacity; stability of the trailer, bicycle and motorcycle turning ability; comfort of the operator and ease of disassembling the hitch system. A proper usage of the trailers presented in this study will boost the health and wealth of farmers and other rural dweller users.

Transportation of goods in rural communities, especially from farms, is one of the major bottlenecks experienced by rural dwellers. Bicycle and motorcycle trailers have been a major intervention proposed by several studies but, this technology has not been fully adopted and it has no detailed evaluation report. This study, therefore, evaluates the performance of different bicycle and motorcycle trailer designs. Three different designs of bicycle trailers (fixed plate design (FPD), convertible plate design (CPD) and wire mesh design (WMD)) and two designs of motorcycle trailers (FPD and CPD) were developed. Four performance evaluation tests (laden mass, forward speed, pull and haulage tests and a computer-based simulation of stress/strain analysis) were carried out. The optimum load capacity (OLC) of WMD bicycle trailer is 100 kg at a speed of 5.2– 6.3 km/hr, while that of FPD and CPD bicycle trailers are 100 kg at a speed of 3.8 - 4.2 km/hr. The OLC for the FPD and CPD motorcycle trailer was 200 kg at a speed of 6.2 – 8.4 km/hr. Static structural analysis of the trailer chassis shows that the maximum stress and strain of the trailers were 2.95 × 106 Pa and 8.22 × 10-6 mm, respectively. This study shows the suitability of the bicycle and motorcycle trailers in small-scale goods conveyance and its suitability for the rural community.

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Digital television broadcasting is currently becoming popular and as a result, the purchase of television cable dishes and other accessories are on the rise. Abandoned television satellite dishes continue to litter our environment due to obsolescence. Finding alternative use stands as a control measure for this inevitable environmental degradation. This paper, therefore, investigates the adaptation for low temperature solar thermal application. The TV satellite dish selected for this study has a diameter of 33.9 cm, depth of 9 cm and a focal point of 31.2 cm. The components added to the dish include; a reflective surface, pot stand, adjustable chain, dish support stand and base, control arm. This system was used in carrying out stagnation test on three different types of pots (aluminium, iron and stainless steel pots) positioned at the focal point. Other performance parameters studied include; standard stagnation temperature (SST) and the rate of change of pot temperature. The maximum stagnation temperatures attained by the inside of the iron, aluminium and stainless steel pots were 68, 80 and 82 °C respectively after 10, 13 and 40 minutes respectively; while their respective maximum SST were 100, 57 and 50 o C. The maximum temperature change inside the iron, aluminium and stainless steel pots were above 9, 12 and 10 o C/min. The result gathered shows that this system will be suitable for lower temperature applications like pasteurization, sterilization, household water heating, etc.