In this study, carbonised coir (CC), was used as a filler in Natural Rubber, varying the loadings between 0 and 50phr at intervals of 10. Carbon black (CB) was also used within the same range of filler loadings. Filler for composites was characterised on the basis of moisture content, pH, loss on ignition, density, and particles size. The physical properties of the composite samples prepared were investigated. The results of the tests obtained for the composites using the carbonised coir were compared with those obtained from carbon black reinforced composites. It was observed that for hardness, the results obtained from composites of studied filler (CC) compared relatively well with the carbon black (CB) reinforced composites. The hardness for all samples maintained an increasing trend with increase in the filler loadings. For the tensile strength and modulus there were no sharp increases shown with increase in filler loading. The results from tests for elongation at break, compression set and flex fatigue showed a falling trend for the test fillers as the filler loadings were increased.

This study involved the use of uncarbonised and carbonised coir in preparing composites of a given polymer. In this case natural rubber (NR) was used. Uncarbonised coir (UC) and carbonised coir (CC) were separately used to prepare the polymer composites. Carbon black (CB) was also used differently and the filler loadings for all varied between 0 and 50 phr. Before using the uncarbonised coir and carbonised coir, they were characterised on the basis of moisture content, pH, particles size and surface area. The properties of the various composite samples prepared were then investigated. The results of the tests obtained for the NR-UC composites were compared with those of NR-CC and also with those of NR-CB composites. It was observed that for hardness, the results obtained from composites of UC and CC fillers showed similar trends with those of carbon black (CB) reinforced composites, increasing with increase in filler volume. For the tensile strength and modulus a trend of slight rise was observed. There were no sharp rises in values as filler volumes were increased. UC and CC fillers were observed to impart very poorly on the tensile strength and modulus relative to the CB reinforced composites. The results from test for elongation, compression set and flex fatigue showed a falling trend for all the fillers to a comparable level with CB. It was generally observed that the uncarbonised coir presented better potentials for reinforcement than the carbonised coir.

This experimental study was carried out to verify the quality enhancement of Natural Rubber Products by drying methods and ascertain to what extent the different methods of drying affected the properties exhibited. During this study, samples of natural rubber coagulum were obtained and a sample each was subjected to one of these three methods of drying: air, smoke and oven. The qualities of the dried rubber samples from the three methods of drying were then investigated. The criterion adopted for quality in this study was Plasticity Retention Index (PRI), which gave insight of the oxidative resistance of natural rubber, a measure of quality. The plasticity retention index was tested by using the Wallace plastimeter. The PRI values were calculated for the samples. Results obtained from this study showed that the qualities of natural rubber samples were actually influenced to different measurable extents depending on drying methods, as exhibited in the PRI levels. The results further gave basis for our conclusions that the smoke dried rubber samples had the poorest qualities, having the lowest values of PRI; followed by the oven and air dried samples respectively in terms of their PRI presented the best qualities, the highest PRI values.

This study investigated the utilisation of Luffa cylindrica activated carbon as a low-cost adsorbent in the removal of vanadium(V) from textile industry effluent in a batch adsorption experiment. The adsorption rate was studied for contact time, pH, and adsorbent dosage. The effect of pH on vanadium(V) removal was studied with 0.2 g/100 ml adsorbent dose, 10 min contact time, and textile effluent solution. The maximum removal efficiency was 99.90 % at pH 4, 97.43 % at 60 min of contact time, and 97.83 % at an adsorbent dosage of 1.0 g. The characterisation results from FTIR and SEM indicated that the adsorbents’ potential was fully exploited. In this study, the experimental findings were fitted using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Freundlich model gave a better fit of the experimental data. The kinetic data by the pseudo-second order kinetic model gave a better fit than the pseudo-first order kinetic model.

This study analyses the extraction process parameters of huracrepitan seed oil using the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The experiments were conducted at temperature (60–80 °C), time (4–6 h), and solute/solvent ratio (0.05–0.10) with output parameter as oil yield. Sensitivity analysis shows that temperature and time had the most significant effect on the oil yield. The oil yield estimation performance indicators are: ANN (<i>R</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.999, MSE = 5.63192E-13), ANFIS (<i>R</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.36927, MSE = 0.42331). The results show that ANN gave a better prediction than ANFIS.