Circular economy use of biomass residues to alleviate poverty, environment, and health constraints

Inadequate energy and water resources supply are major constraints contributing to poverty and poor health outcomes in developing economies. Low-income countries lack ready access to modern necessities such as electricity and potable water. On one hand, the scarcity of electricity and other clean energies compel reliance on traditional biomass for domestic fuels. On the other hand, harvesting firewood to meet energy needs leads to deforestation and environmental degradation. Furthermore, burning the wood for heat creates ecosystem perturbators such as toxicants, greenhouse gasses, and particulate matter. These pollutants portend adverse health concerns, including premature mortality. Globally, fine particulate matter air pollution alone causes about 3.3 million deaths annually. The contribution of this paper is to offer how circular economy targeted technologies could come to the rescue. In particular, utilizing biomass residues and wastes for briquette and pellet creation is highlighted. These densified fuel products could serve as green energies in domestic and industrial applications; and thus, help to attenuate poverty, and the adverse environmental and health consequences of traditional biomass

Proximate, Physical And Sensory Properties Of Soy-Sweet Potato Flour Cookie.

Flour mixtures consisting of full-fat soy flour and sweet potato flour at 25-75% levels were used in cookie production. Proximate, physical and sensory properties of the cookies were determined. Physical and sensory properties investigated included thickness, diameter, spread factor, spread ratio, fragility, appearance, flavour, texture, aroma, internal crumb appearance and general acceptability which were compared with those of cookies made from whole wheat. Results showed that there was no significant (p>0.05) difference in cookie physical characteristics, as compared with the control sample, except in spread factor and fragility. Cookie spread was found to be influenced by the presence of sugar, oil and water absorption of flour. Panelists' acceptance of cookies was at between 60 and 70%. Key words: Properties, soy-sweet potato, flour, cookies. (Global Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences: 2002 8(2): 187-192

Determination of Optimum Processing Conditions for the Proximate Composition and Pasting Characteristics of Flour Made from Parboiled Cassava Chips: A Response Surface Analysis

The effects of processing conditions on the proximate composition and pasting properties were investigated using A Rotatable Central Composite Design (RCCD) for three variables. Processing conditions included parboiling time (10, 12, 13, 14 and 15 min), soaking time (24, 36, 48, 60 and 72h) and drying temperature (40, 45, 50, 55, and 60 ℃). Response data on the pasting properties were analysed in a regression model while the three-dimensional graphs were plotted. Crude protein, fat and fibre contents significantly decreased with increase in soaking time from 24 to 72h. There was also a significant decrease of peak viscosity (from 260.60 – 380.33 to 260.60 RVU) and peak time (from 4.82 to 3.54 min) with an increase in the time of soaking the parboiled cassava chips samples from 24 to 72 h. Increasing the soaking time beyond 48h resulted to increase in breakdown viscosity (175.30 – 221 RVU) of the parboiled cassava flour samples. The breakdown viscosity of the flour samples also decreased significantly with increase in drying temperature from 40℃ to 60℃. There was a decrease in the final viscosity (228.00 to 184.83 RVU) with an increase in the cooking time of cassava parenchyma from 10 to 15min. The optimum processing conditions were found to be parboiling time of 12 min (x1), a soaking time of 24 h (x2), and drying temperature of 60℃ (x3)

Nutritional Compositions and Sensory Properties of Composite Flour from FARO 44 Rice (Oryza sativa)-TMS 8082 Cassava (Manihot esculenta) and Its Paste

This study was carried out to investigate the nutritional properties of unsoaked and soaked FARO 44 flour with their blends with cassava flour and the sensory evaluation of their thick paste. FAR0 44 and cassava flour were blended in the ratio of 75:25 (Unsoaked Rice and Cassava) sample, 50:50 (Unsoaked Rice and Cassava) sample, 25:75 (Unsoaked Rice and Cassava) sample, 75:25 (Soaked rice and Cassava) sample, 50:50 (Soaked rice and Cassava) sample, 25:75 (Soaked rice and Cassava) sample, 100% (cassava) sample 100% (Unsoaked Rice) sample  100% (Soaked rice) sample. The proximate analysis and mineral composition of the flour blends were conducted. Proximate composition data indicated an increased level of protein, fat, ash, crude fibre and carbohydrate (2.47-16.73%, 1.11-1.78%, 4.13-8.27%, 0.44-5.27% and 58.72-73.35%) respectively. The unsoaked and soaked rice flours and their blends where their ratios were high had higher protein content. There was a significant different (P<0.05) in the mineral content of the composites samples. Data of these study shows that the rice and cassava samples had good mineral content and the raw and soaked rice did not significantly affect the mineral content of the samples. The result indicates that vitamins A and C were significantly different (P<0.05) in the samples except for samples 100 UR and 100 SR where vitamin A was not detected. The thick paste prepared for the sensory evaluation shows that samples with 100 SR, 75 SR 25 C, 50 SR 50 C were most accepted in appearance than the other sample as compared favourably with sample 100 C. The results also show that the under-utilized cereal crop like FARO 44 rice flour and their composites with cassava are nutritionally adequate for consumption for adult and children, as well as the production of baby foods and the lot

Physical Properties of Cookies Produced from Cassava - Groundnut-Corn Starch Blend-A Response Surface Analysis

ABSTRACT Cookie bars were produced from mixtures of cassava and groundnut flours with cornstarch as binder. Box-Behnken response surface design for k=3 was used to study the effects of experimental variables for cassava flour (25-75%), groundnut flour (25-75%) and corn starch (5-15%). Effects of the experimental variables on physical properties of the cookie bars were assessed. Experimental variables had significant effect on the thickness and spread factor of the cookie bars