Review on production of liquid fuel from co-pyrolysis of biomass with scrap/waste tire

The oil produced by the pyrolysis of biomass has potential for use as a substitute for fossil fuels. However, the oil needs to be upgraded since it contains high levels of oxygen, which causes low calorific value, corrosion problems, and instability. Generally, upgrading the pyrolysis oil involves the addition of a catalyst, solvent and large amount hydrogen, which can cost more than the oil itself. In this regard, the co-pyrolysis technique offers simplicity and effectiveness in order to produce a high-grade pyrolysis oil. Co-pyrolysis is a process which involves two or more materials as feedstock. The feedstocks were biomass and tire waste. The pyrolysis of scrap tires at a temperature of 500oC produced an oil yield of 44.1 wt%. The increase in oil yield from co-pyrolysis processes of Pine wood and tire wastes was found to be 64.8 wt%. The HHV of tire waste pyrolysis liquid alone was 43.8MJ/kg while for the co-pyrolysis of tire waste and pinewoods was 46.8MJ/Kg. The results of many studies showed that the use of co-pyrolysis technique can improve the characteristics of pyrolysis oil, e.g., increase the oil yield, reduce the oxygen content, reduce the water content, and increase the calorific value of the oil.Keywords: Co-pyrolysis, Biomass, Tire-waste and Calorific-valu

Child Poverty in Rural Nigeria

Children are the most susceptible to poverty and it often directly affects them through access to sanitation, education, health, water, food and shelter. Poverty among them is however usually assessed using indicators such as income and expenditure which often do not reveal the extent of deprivation among them. This study investigates the extent of poverty among under five children in rural Nigeria and its distribution across household wealth status. The study used the 2013 DHS data. The Alkire and Foster counting approach was used to generate poverty profiles among the children while descriptive statistics was used to assess their distribution. The results revealed a significant level of poverty among the children and poor children were found in all classes of household poverty. The North-west and North-east had highest proportion of non poor children from extremely poor and moderately poor households, respectively while the South-south had the highest proportion of extremely poor and moderately poor children from non poor households. The study recommended that specific policies targeting deprivations suffered by children should be used to address child poverty. Keywords: Rural Households; Child poverty index; deprivation intensity; Alkire and Foster counting approac

Surveillance for African Swine fever in Nigeria, 2006-2009

African swine fever (ASF) has had significant economic and social impact in Nigeria since 1997. However, there has been no effective national response to bring it under control. In this report, we confirm that ASF is still prevalent and widespread in Nigeria. Results from both serosurveillance and virological analyses indicated that ASF is present in most of the agro-ecological zones of the country. Nine per cent (9%) of serum samples and 48% of tissue samples were positive for ASF virus antibody and genome, respectively. Areas with high pig-related activities (marketing, consumption and farming) have higher prevalences compared with areas with less pig activities. Farm-gate buyers, marketing systems and transport of untested pigs within the country assist with the circulation of the virus. Only by putting in place a comprehensive routine surveillance and testing system, reorganizing the market and transportation systems for pigs, implementing on-farm bio-security protocols and considering the option of compensation will it be possible to achieve a significant reduction in ASF prevalence in Nigeria