Review of Agricultural Waste Utilization as Improvement Additives for Residual Tropical Soils

The development of a nation partially depends on sustainable materials obtained from agricultural products. Increased agricultural products could increase the amount of waste generated yearly. This paper presents a review on the use of agricultural waste with pozzolanic properties (rice husk ash, Locust bean waste ash, Palm oil fuel ash, Banana leaf ash, Bagasse ash, Coconut shell ash, Bamboo leaf ash, Corn cob ash, Cassava peel ash and Palm kernel shell ash) in various geotechnical engineering applications. Interestingly, these wastes were subjected to various laboratory tests such as (particle size distribution, Compaction, Atterberg, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and California bearing ratio (CBR)) to assess their effectiveness in soil improvement. In all these, the percentages of the materials required for soil improvement were discussed. The reports from various researchers have shown that agricultural waste having pozzolanic properties improves the engineering properties of soil. For instance, palm oil fuel ash (POFA) is mostly used as an admixture in concrete as reported elsewhere. Few studies have been carried out on the use of banana leaf ash and palm oil fuel ash as soil improvement materials. It is recommended that further researches should focus on the possibility of using other agricultural waste from Cocoyam, Yam peel, maize trunk, Cashew and Guava that have limited reporting researches for use as soil improvement materials

Impact Of Marketing Strategies And Performance Of Banks And Its Ffects On Nigeria Economy

The banking industry has been facing a lot of challenges in recent times in Nigeria. These include competition among them and non banking financial institutions such as insurance Companies. Therefore this research, impact of marketing strategies and performance of banks and its effects on Nigeria economy is aimed tonbsp identify the various types of the marketing mix components employed by thenbsp banks . to examine the effect of the marketing strategies on the performance of the banks. Andnbsp to determine if the marketing strategies employed by the Banks differ significantly from one another. Questionnaire was administered on two population which arenbsp Management andnbsp staff of thenbsp banks and customers of thenbsp banks. 250 questionnaire was administered tonbsp Management andnbsp staff of thenbsp banks,nbsp and also 250 was administered to customers of the bank in Nigeria. Result of the analysis revealed four factors which were distribution network, quality of service, promotion and price with the percentage contribution of each factor being 51.9%, 73.6%, 31.2% and 38.5% respectively. Multiple regression analysis shows that R2 = 0.563 which indicated that the four factor accounted for 56% variability in the performance ofnbsp marketing strategies employed by the banks. The result of the analysis of variance indicated that the mean ratings for thenbsp banks were not significantly different at 0.05level. We thereby conclude that banks should focus its innovative efforts on enlarging the size of the market in which it participates by introducing new products and services, promoting new uses for existing products and seeking out new class of customers

Parameters for Design and Construction of a Pilot Scale Pyrolysis Gas-Furnace

The objective of this study is to analyse the design parameters for a pyrolysis furnace designed and built for experimental purposes using the principle of heat transfer. The furnace was made of a casing of low carbon steel sheets inside which the refractory bricks were moulded, forming the furnace cavity to prevent heat loss. The pyrolysis capsule was made of high carbon steel tube with flanges which can be opened for batch loading of the precursors and evacuation of products. The furnace was designed to be gas-fired due to high efficiency and cleaner nature of gas energy. The pyrolysis capsule is installed along the centre of the furnace cavity where combustion takes place. The heat energy accumulated around the capsule is being absorbed into the pyrolysis chamber where precursors are being loaded, the regulation of the temperature of the combustion chamber via the installed feedback mechanism to monitor and control the system. The capsule has a Nitrogen gas inlet for the inert environment needed for effective pyrolysis process and an outlet duct for pyrolysis oil collection and gas recovery. The experimental initial conditions were inputted in Solidworks Flow Simulation to determine the heat distribution at different regions of the furnace and thus made it easy to determine the furnace combustion chamber temperature at which the pyrolysis temperature will be attained inside the pyrolysis chambe

Biodiesel production from palm olein: A sustainable bioresource for Nigeria

Dangerous environmental consequences and market unpredictability of fossil fuels have necessitated the need for sustainable large-scale production of biofuel in Nigeria. Unrefined palm oil (UPO) is a significant product of commercially available oil palm plants in the country. This study experimentally investigates the production of biodiesel from refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm olein extracted from UPO obtained from batch reactors. The transesterification process of the RBD palm olein with methanol and in the presence of potassium hydroxide (KOH) catalyst produced biodiesel with a 62.5% yield, thus confirming its feasibility for mass production. The derived biodiesel has properties equivalent to ASTM D792 standard for biodiesel fuels

A Reliability-Centered Maintenance Study for an Individual Section-Forming Machine

This study investigated the breakdown trend in an automated production with an aim to recommend the application of reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) for improved productivity via a new preventive maintenance (PM) program. An individual section-forming machine (ISM)—a glass blowing machine for making glass bottles—was used as the case study for an automated production system. The machine parts and the working mechanisms were analysed with a special focus on methods of processes and procedures. This will enable the ISM maintenance department to run more effectively and achieve its essential goal of ensuring effective machine operation and reduction in machine downtime. In this work, information is provided on the steps and procedures to identify critical components of the ISM using failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA) as a tool to come up with an optimal and efficient maintenance program using the reliability data of the equipment’s functional components. A relationship between the failure rate of the machine components and the maintenance costs was established such that using the recommended PM program demonstrates evidence of an improvement in the machine’s availability, safety, and cost-effectiveness and will result in an increase in the company’s profit margin

A Response Surface Approach for Determining Optimal Mix Parameters for Normal Strength Concrete

The study evaluates the influence of water/ cement ratios and aggregates contents on the engineering properties of normal weight concrete. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using historical design was adopted to design and develop predictive models and perform the optimization of concrete prepared with cement, fine aggregate (FA), coarse aggregate (CA) contents at different water/ cement ratio f0Q /C) by volume. Concrete mixes were prepared using fixed content of ordinary Portland cement and the different mixtures. The density and compressive strength of hardened concrete specimens were determined at the curing 28 days. The response surface analysis showed that W / C and aggregate contents have significant effects on density and compressive strength of concrete. The regression model yielded good correlations with the experimental data. The optimized density and 28-day compressive strength values of 2522.973 kg/m3 and 29.977 N/mm2 were achieved for the concrete mix containing 1.5-part ofF A, 3-part of CA and 0.60 W /C, respectively. The optimal concrete mix parameters determined using RSM provides the basis for selecting appropriate safe concrete component ratios

Mechanical Characterisation and Modelling of a Pulverised Palm Kernel Shell based Spur Gear

Advances in power transmission using spur gear technology in some specific mechanical devices required lightweight to strength ratio of the gear material. This study evaluated the mechanical properties of a particulate palm kernel shell reinforced polyester composite (PPKSRPC) for spur gear application. The PPKSRPC sample was prepared and examined experimentally to determine its mechanical properties such as tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and shear modulus. The experimental result for 5% weight fraction of PPKSRPC gave a tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and shear modulus of 90.3 MPa, 2.35 GPa and 0.89 GPa, respectively. The value obtained was used to model the PPKSRPC spur gear under a torque of 140 N-m in ANSYS environment. The observed values of the responses (mechanical properties) of the PPKSRPC under loading conditions are lower compared to the conventional steel in spur gear application