DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF A MOTORIZED/ POWER OPERATED PLANTAIN SLICER FOR OPTIMUM CHIPS PRODUCTION

In Nigeria, plantain chips are in high demand and this demand is not being met by most small scale food industries and shops due to some critical factors. Shops are only able to fulfill approximately two-thirds of the demand. The biggest obstacle towards attaining self-sufficiency in the production of plantain chips is the intensity of labor involved and the tediousness of the process which often culminate into prolonged production time. Plantain has a large amount of sap and this causes the skin to adhere to the fruit inside. After peeling, they must be sliced into discs to fry into chips. Worker will hold up to eight plantains in one hand and rapidly slice them using a wooden mandolin. Because of the rapid pace at which they slice plantain and the absence ofhand gloves on the workers, accidents are very often unavoidable. These presents health hazards to both the worker, who may develop infections from their injuries, and customers who may consume an unsanitary product. This development is very uncomfortable and tasking on the workers. They must hold the mandolin over the fryer so the plantains will fall in, which causes splashing of the boiling hot oil that occasionally hits and injures the worker. This research focused on design and fabrication of motorized / power operated plantain slicer to meet the raising demands for plantain chips in Nigeria. The objectives of this research was met as the machine has the capacity to produce plantain chips of uniform size in shorter time and a greater slicing efficiency of up to 96.84% while keeping the cost of themachine at an affordable price

COMPARATIVE CALORIFIC EVALUATION OF BIOMASS FUEL AND FOSSIL FUEL

In recent years, fossil fuels have been preferably used industrial purposes. Fossil fuels are highly flammable and effective but are very hazardous to the human environment. It is also one of the causes of the ozone layer depletion which humanity is battling presently. Biomass fuels are ma waste materials which have good properties that aid combustion, less hazardous and are effective for some domestic activities and in small presents the calorific evaluation and analysis of fossil fuel and bio highlights the effects of fossil fuels in terms of the dangers of increasing CO concentration in the atmosphere. It presents biomass fuel as a potential substitute for fossil fuel as a renewable energy by comparing the calorific values combustible samples such as: rice husk, petrol, diesel, corn cob using a C200 bomb calorimeter at the Landmark University energy laboratory to determine the calorific values and to examine if biomass can be used as a suitable replacement for fos asp 1576 [email protected] 1576–1590, Article ID: IJCIET_09_13_15 0976-6316 Scopus Indexed CALORIFIC EVALUATION OF FOSSIL FUEL C. O. Osueke Landmark University, Omu-Aran Kwara State T. M. A. Olayanju Engineering Department, Landmark University, Omu Kwara State C. A. Ezugwu Landmark University, Omu-Aran Kwara State A. O. Onokwai Landmark University, Omu-Aran Kwara State I. Ikpotokin Landmark University, Omu-Aran Kwara D. C. Uguru-Okorie Landmark University, Omu-Aran Kwara State F.C. Nnaji Landmark University, Omu-Aran Kwara State both for domestic and majorly agricultural small-scale industries. This paper biomass fuel. It also 158 C SIL Omu-Aran State jorly mass CO2 of various fossi

QUANTIFYING CASSAVA WASTE GENERATION AND BIOGAS PRODUCTION IN EHA-ALUMONA GRINDING MILLS

Garri processing is a major agricultural and food related activity which leads to waste generation and this waste in turn constitute environmental problems in terms of stench smells and poor hygienic conditions that allow microbes and germs to thrive. Rural dwellers are normally poor thus the payment of electricity bills impoverishes them further. Inadequate energy supply and environmental pollution are gargantuan problems confronting Nigeria and many other developing nations of the world. In this research we estimated the cassava waste generation rate associated with processing of cassava for garri production activities and estimation of amount of biogas generation from specific mass of the waste. A simple digester is fabricated for sample digestion process. The result was then used in estimation of biogas generation potential of the garri processing mills. Five different garri processing activities were studied for statistical reliability of results. The results of the five studied garri production activities as described in the methodology were summarized in table 3.1. The quantities ��, ��, �� and ��� were directly measured as described while the ��� and ��� were calculated in each cell of table 3.1 as differences���= ��− �� and ���= ��−��. The sum of waste generated in each of the studied activity � is given in equation (3.1). The counted number of bags for each studied activity was given as. The estimation for daily generation of pressed bags of cassava by the community is ,�����= 44.35 bags.Keywords: Biogas, Energy, Cassava, Waste, Garri

Design, modelling, energy and exergy analysis of a parabolic cooker

A functional parabolic solar cooker was designed and constructed to serve as an alternate renewable source of energy for cooking and to also reduce the adverse effects of other sources of energy on the environment. The solar cooker was fabricated using cheap, locally sourced available materials in Nigeria. Experimental investigation was carried out on the produced model in Omu-Aran Metropolis, Kwara State, Nigeria in December 2016. Thereafter other investigations were carried out from January to December 2017 and lastly in January 2018 between the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. local time for both stagnation and sensible heating, using 2 L of water at every experiment. The average energy and exergy efficiencies of the parabolic cooker were about 39% and 44% respectively. The instability of the energy efficiency occurred as a result of optical and thermal losses from the reflector and pot, as well as the varying environmental conditions. Mathematical expressions were used to calculate the theoretical values of energy and exergy efficiencies using Minitab, while the statistical analysis showed that there was no significant difference between the experimental and predicted results for exergy and energy efficiencies of both cookers at p > 0.05, this validated the design.

Domestic Violence against Women in the Nigerian Rural Context

The problem of domestic violence is not new to African societies. This study focused on the remote causes and implications of domestic violence among rural women. The study adopted a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. The respondents were selected using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Findings revealed that 82.3% of the respondents agree that the economic dependence of women on men is among the major causes of domestic violence, while 52.3% of respondents believe that their communities encourage and tolerate some abusive behavior. A total of 61.5% of the respondents posit that religious and traditional beliefs aid the persistence of domestic violence. On the implications of domestic violence, 84.6% of the respondents agree that children of domestic violent homes will model their behavior according to their experiences. The X2 value of 13.437 is significant at 3.841 and shows that domestic violence has a serious psychological implication on women. Lack of authorities to report cases of violence to and fear of the consequences of such reports prevented many of these rural women from seeking help when they were abused. This study posits that advocacy groups should employ more practical and appropriate communication mechanisms peculiar to each rural area. Specifically, the use of indigenous languages to form songs, playlet, and proverbs to communicate the implications of domestic violence against women in their communities should be encouraged. Community and women leaders should ensure that women who report cases of domestic abuse are adequately protected from the perpetrators. In doing this, they are able to accept the sensitization processes rather than disregard them or term them ‘wester

Thermal Analysis of Solar Box Cooker in Omu-Aran Metropolis

Just like other solar cookers, the solar box cooker needs energy gotten from the sun to operate without producing emissions. In this research, a solar box is fabricated to reduce over-dependence on fossil fuel for energy generation. This reduces the environmental degradation caused by the use of other sources of energy. The ASHRAE empirical model was used to obtain the solar irradiance present in Omu-Aran metropolis. Thereafter, the no-load and load test was conducted to determine the cooker’s thermal performance. The tests were conducted between January 2018 and January 2019 in Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria with geographical coordinates 8° 8' 0" North, 5° 6' 0" East. The average energy and exergy efficiency of the cooker were 32oC and 28oC respectively. A decrease in the efficiency of the cooker was observed. This was because the reflector, which is made from aluminium foil, was degrading. As a result of this degradation caused the sun rays (radiation) to be reflected poorly into the absorber and also caused a myth of overcast sky. Meanwhile, the variation in solar radiation during the sensible heating test resulted in the fluctuation inefficiency. The ratio of water to absorber temperature which was above 0.80 during the pre-boiling heating process indicates that the cooker can be recommended for sterilization

VEHICULAR SPEED DETERMINATION USING CELLULAR AND GEO-SPATIAL INFORMATION

The rapid increase in the occurrence of road accidents in Nigeria requires the deployment of real time techniques that is equipped to reduce one of the critical factor that have been identified by the Federal Road Safety cooperation of Nigeria (FRSC) that constitute the major cause of road accidents which is over speeding. This was achieved through the design and implementation of real time vehicle speed monitoring system using cellular signal along the travelled path. A data acquisition device was developed to capture in real time the signal strength and geospatial data (longitude and latitude) along the travel path which is used in determining the speed of the moving vehicle. The acquired data was correlated with data obtained from standardize equipment to establish the integrity of the data, the data was then used to develop the algorithm by obtaining equation for the path-loss gain in terms of signal strength against distance. Equation for the base stations covering a distance of 10km were obtained for analysis. Consequently from the equation, the distance from two locations along the route can be determined from corresponding signal strength values, the average speed results for the drive test, new Model and using Latitude and Longitude are compared as followed 88.05km/hr, 75.67km/hr and 88.2km/hr respectively. With this a new paradigm shift in vehicular speed management is developed based on Cellular signals for real time vehicular speed determination. Keywords: Base station, Cellular, Geospatial data, Signal Strength, Vehicular speed

DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF A MOTORIZED/ POWER OPERATED PLANTAIN SLICER FOR OPTIMUM CHIPS PRODUCTION

In Nigeria, plantain chips are in high demand and this demand is not being met by most small scale food industries and shops due to some critical factors. Shops are only able to fulfill approximately two-thirds of the demand. The biggest obstacle towards attaining self-sufficiency in the production of plantain chips is the intensity of labor involved and the tediousness of the process which often culminate into prolonged production time. Plantain has a large amount of sap and this causes the skin to adhere to the fruit inside. After peeling, they must be sliced into discs to fry into chips. Worker will hold up to eight plantains in one hand and rapidly slice them using a wooden mandolin. Because of the rapid pace at which they slice plantain and the absence ofhand gloves on the workers, accidents are very often unavoidable. These presents health hazards to both the worker, who may develop infections from their injuries, and customers who may consume an unsanitary product. This development is very uncomfortable and tasking on the workers. They must hold the mandolin over the fryer so the plantains will fall in, which causes splashing of the boiling hot oil that occasionally hits and injures the worker. This research focused on design and fabrication of motorized / power operated plantain slicer to meet the raising demands for plantain chips in Nigeria. The objectives of this research was met as the machine has the capacity to produce plantain chips of uniform size in shorter time and a greater slicing efficiency of up to 96.84% while keeping the cost of themachine at an affordable price

INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON THE RATE OF DRYING MOISTURE AND CYANIDE CONTENTS OF CASSAVA CHIPS USING OVEN DRYING PROCESS

This research was aimed at investigating the effect of temperature on the rate of drying moisture and cyanide contents of cassava chips using oven drying process. Five varieties of raw cassava (Manihot Esculenta, Crantz) namely TMS 98/0510, TME 419, TMS 97/2205, NR 87184 and TMS 96/1632 were harvested at twelve (12) months after planting (MAP) from the experimental plots of the Enugu State College of Agriculture and Agro-Entrepreneurship Iwollo-Ezeagu Enugu, Nigeria. For each of the varieties 2kg of tubers were processed. The results from the research showed that processing of the cassava tubers into dried cassava chips using oven process resulted in an acceptable level of moisture and cyanide contents which were in conformity with the compositional requirements for dried cassava chips. The graph showed that higher the temperature, the faster the rate of drying of the chips. Moreover, the drying rates, moisture and cyanide contents were affected by the drying temperatures