Radiometric Survey of Aluu Landfill, In Rivers State, Nigeria

A key component of the Millennium Development Goals is a call to halve by the year 2015 the proportion of persons without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation in developing nations. This paper reports a study of the terrestrial radioactivity around Aluu landfill in Obiakpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria.  Measurements were carried out in the North, South, East and West directions of the Aluu landfill. An in- situ measurement was done using two well calibrated nuclear radiation meters (Radalert-100 and Digilert-50) and a geographical positioning system (GPS). Ten readings were taken in each direction of the landfill at intervals of ten (10) meters away from the landfill making a total of forty (40) sampling points. The mean site radiation levels all the four cardinal points ranges from 0.0123  0.0026 mR/hr (1.034mSv/y) to 0.0151± 0.0012mR/h (1.270mSv/y).  The equivalent dose has an average value range of 1.001mSv/y to 1.270mSv/y which is slightly above the recommended dose limit of 1.0mSv/y for the general public. Comparison of the measured radiation level of site locations with the normal background levels show 21 locations representing 53% of the sampled area exceed the normal background level of 0.013mR/h. This study indicates that there is no immediate radiological health hazard for the general public, however there may be long-term health challenges. Keywords: Assessment, Dose equivalent, Landfill, Millennium, Radalert, Digilert

Optimization of biogas supply networks considering multiple objectives and auction trading prices of electricity

Abstract This contribution presents an hourly-based optimization of a biogas supply network to generate electricity, heat and organic fertilizer while considering multiple objectives and auction trading prices of electricity. The optimization model is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) utilizing a four-layer biogas supply chain. The model accounts for biogas plants based on two capacity levels of methane to produce on average 1 ± 0.1 MW and 5 ± 0.2 MW electricity. Three objectives are put forward: i) maximization of economic profit, ii) maximization of economic profit while considering cost/benefits from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (economic+GHG profit) and iii) maximization of sustainability profit. The results show that the economic profit accrued on hourly-based auction trading prices is negative (loss), hence, four additional scenarios are put forward: i) a scenario whereby carbon prices are steadily increased to the prevalent eco-costs/eco-benefits of global warming; ii) a scenario whereby all the electricity auction trading prices are multiplied by certain factors to find the profitability breakeven factor, iii) a scenario whereby shorter time periods are applied, and investment cost of biogas storage is reduced showing a relationship between cost, volume of biogas stored and the variations in electricity production and (iv) a scenario whereby the capacity of the biogas plant is varied from 1 MW and 5 MW as it affects economics of the process. The models are applied to an illustrative case study of agricultural biogas plants in Slovenia where a maximum of three biogas plants could be selected. The results hence present the effects of the simultaneous relationship of economic profit, economic+GHG profit and sustainability profit on the supply and its benefit to decision-making

Bacteriological Quality Assessment of Shallow Wells in Sabion Gari settlement of Girei Local Government Area of Adamawa State

Shallow well water is one of the major source of drinking water in Girei Local Government. In the Present study, the bacteriological quality and physico-chemical properties (pH and temperature) of water samples collected from selected shallow wells in the study area were assessed. Therein, the organisms isolated from the well water are Escherichia and Klebsiellaspp. The coliform count of the water sample collected from the wells as determined by most probable number method falls between 350-1800+ coliforms / 100m1, while the heterotropic bacteria from the sample were in the range of 7.2 × 103 - 2.88 × 104 cfu/ml. Moreover, the pH and temperature of the water falls around 5.5-7.1 and 15-21 °C, respectively. This study showed that the water samples obtained from wells in Sabon Gari are heavily contaminated with coliforms. This is of serious concern because of the association of the coliforms with pathogenic enterobacteriaceae

Factors Influencing the Adoption of Sasakawa Global 2000Maize Production Technologies among Smallholder Farmers in Kaduna State

The study assessed the adoption of Sasakawa Global 2000 maize production practices among smallholder maize farmers in Kaduna State. Data for the study were obtained by the use of structured questionnaire. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the respondents from the four ADP zones of the State. In the first stage, four cells were selected randomly from the four ADPs zones. Subsequently, twenty maize farmers were randomly selected from each of the four cells given eighty (80) respondents. Descriptive statistics and logit regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The result showed that many (50.0%) of the sampled farmers were between the ages of 31-50years and 58.7% are literate. It, also, revealed that majority (98%) of the respondents had increased yield, eighty three per cent (83%) indicated the use of less fertilizer, while seventy one per cent (71%) reported having improved level of living. The result further shows that age, education, household size, extension contact, farm yield, and access to credit were the factors influencing the adoption of SG 2000 maize production practices at 1% and 5% level of significance. The study recommends that extension workers should assist farmers to form co-operatives associations and where they are in existence, efforts should be made to strengthen them for easy access to credit, farm inputs and markets for their agricultural products

Factors Influencing the Adoption of Sasakawa Global 2000Maize Production Technologies among Smallholder Farmers in Kaduna State

The study assessed the adoption of Sasakawa Global 2000 maize production practices among smallholder maize farmers in Kaduna State. Data for the study were obtained by the use of structured questionnaire. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the respondents from the four ADP zones of the State. In the first stage, four cells were selected randomly from the four ADPs zones. Subsequently, twenty maize farmers were randomly selected from each of the four cells given eighty (80) respondents. Descriptive statistics and logit regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The result showed that many (50.0%) of the sampled farmers were between the ages of 31-50years and 58.7% are literate. It, also, revealed that majority (98%) of the respondents had increased yield, eighty three per cent (83%) indicated the use of less fertilizer, while seventy one per cent (71%) reported having improved level of living. The result further shows that age, education, household size, extension contact, farm yield, and access to credit were the factors influencing the adoption of SG 2000 maize production practices at 1% and 5% level of significance. The study recommends that extension workers should assist farmers to form co-operatives associations and where they are in existence, efforts should be made to strengthen them for easy access to credit, farm inputs and markets for their agricultural products