Production of Particleboard from Agricultural Waste - A Sustainable Approach to Waste Management

Large amounts of agricultural waste are left unutilized in Nigeria, resulting in detrimental environmental consequences. Particleboard made from such trash would help to reduce deforestation and have a good impact on the environment. The characteristics of particleboard made from corn cob (CC) and sugarcane bagasse (SB) with cassava starch and urea formaldehyde as separate binders were compared in this study. CC and SB mix proportions of 90:10, 70:30, and 50:50 percent (by volume) were used to make three layers of medium density particleboard. Manual mixing and blending of 25% and 10% by volume of the different binders and water respectively was done. The mixtures were compressed for 1 hour at 100 °C and 342 kg/m2. The ASTM D. 1037-12 (2020) and EN 312 (2010) standards were used to evaluate the particleboard. However, particleboard produced from 90 % CC and 10 % SB with cassava starch binder had the greatest modulus of elasticity (MOE) of 444.65 N/mm2 and modulus of rapture (MOR) of 10.59 N/mm2. The MOR and MOE data from this investigation allowed researchers to draw the conclusion that while the mechanical qualities of the panels improved as the fraction of CC particles increased, the panels' physical characteristics remained subpar

Alkaline Pre-Treatment and Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Waste Papers to Fermentable Sugar

Waste paper is known to be the major component of organic solid waste. In this research, waste paper was used as a feedstock for the production of fermentable sugar with the aid of two (2) microorganisms. The waste papers used included newspaper, officpaper and foolscap paper. Enzymatic hydrolysis was carried out on the waste papers after the alkaline treatment using Aspergillus niger and Pseudomonas aeruginosa at different temperatures of 25 o C, 37 o C and 42 o C. The highest yield was obtained from the foolscap paper, which produced reducing sugar at a maximum concentration of 486.66 mg/L after two weeks using Pseudomonas aeruginosa at 37 o C. On the other hand, hydrolysing using Aspergillus niger, produced reducing sugar at a maximum concentration of 365 mg/L at an optimum temperature of 25 o C with office paper

A Bioremediation Study of Raw and Treated Crude Petroleum Oil Polluted Soil with Aspergillus niger and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

This study was conducted to investigate the degree of bioremediation that would occur in the samples of soil polluted with raw and treated crude petroleum (oil) with the aid of Aspergillus niger (fungi) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (bacteria). This was achieved by monitoring the Organic carbon content in the soil over 45 days and pH over 25 days. Four systems of 500 g soil were polluted with 40 g treated crude petroleum, while four systems were contaminated with 40 g raw crude petroleum. The eight systems were labeled accordingly. Two systems for raw crude control and treated crude control (RCC and TCC) were left as control, two systems for raw crude Aspergillus niger and treated crude Aspergillus niger (RCA and TCA) were treated with Aspergillus niger only, two systems for raw crude Pseudomonas aeruginosa and treated crude Pseudomonas aeruginosa (RCP and TCP) were treated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa only and the last two systems for raw crude Aspergillus niger and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (RCAP and TCAP) were treated with both Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aspergillus niger . At the end of the bioremediation period, the results obtained showed that the pH was not particularly a solid parameter to estimate the degree of bioremediation. This is because a proper trend in the results obtained could not be determined. Additionally, it was observed that Aspergillus niger (fungi) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (bacteria) alone and separate remediate raw crude polluted soil better than treated crude polluted soil. This was determined by the TOC (Total Organic Carbon) values on the 45th day of the experiment