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.
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.
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