What Drives Innovation?: Inferences from an Industry-Wide Survey in Nigeria

This chapter seeks to make some contributions to the literature on firm-level innovation in Africa by attempting to identify the significant factors that explain the capability of firms in Nigeria to innovate using the results of an industry-wide study. We focused on the product and process innovation activities of firms between 2003 and 2006 and found differences in the factors that drive them at the firm level. Our results further show that interactions matter more than most innovation-related variables and that the most important actors that influence a firm’s innovation efforts are its customers and suppliers. We conclude that product and process innovations are not mutually exclusive and that a major key to successful innovation is how and with whom a firm collaborates. The implication of this for firms and policy makers is that an effectively wired innovation system where all stakeholders are active is critical for firm-level innovation capability.innovation; drivers; manufacturing industry; Nigeria; determinants

Enhanced corrosion resistance of stainless steel type 316 in sulphuricacid solution using eco-friendly waste product

Literature has shown that different organic compounds are effective corrosion inhibitors for metal inacidic environments. Such compounds usually contain oxygen, nitrogen or sulphur and function throughadsorption on the metal surface, thereby creating a barrier for corrosion attack. Unfortunately, theseorganic compounds are toxic, scarce and expensive. Therefore, plants, natural product and natural oilshave been posed as cheap, environmentally acceptable, abundant, readily available and effective mole-cules having low environmental impact. The corrosion resistance of austenitic stainless steel Type 316in the presence of eco-friendly waste product was studied using weight loss and potentiodynamic polar-ization techniques in 0.5 M H2SO4. The corrosion rate and corrosion potential of the steel was signifi-cantly altered by the studied inhibitor. Results show that increase in concentration of the inhibitorhinders the formation of the passive film. Experimental observation shows that its pitting potentialdepends on the concentration of the inhibitor in the acid solution due to adsorption of anions at the metalfilm interface. The presence of egg shell powder had a strong influence on the corrosion resistance ofstainless steel Type 316 with highest inhibition efficiency of 94.74% from weight loss analysis, this isas a result of electrochemical action and inhibition of the steel by the ionized molecules of the inhibitingcompound which influenced the mechanism of the redox reactions responsible for corrosion and surfacedeterioration. Inhibitor adsorption fits the Langmuir isotherm model. The two methods employed for thecorrosion assessment were in good agreemen

Bio-preservative activities of Lactobacillus plantarum strains in fermenting Casssava ‘fufu’

The growth of three pathogens, namely Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhii were investigated in fermenting and non-fermenting cassava. The pH of the steeped cassava was also examined during fermentation. Antimicrobial effects of the Lactobacillus plantarum on the pathogens were also determined by agar diffusion method. All the pathogens were inhibited by L. plantarum strains with Staph. aureus having the highest inhibitory zone followed by E. coli and S. thyphii. However, in the fermenting cassava, the pathogens increased in population within the first 36 h of the process and decreased to complete extinction after the 96 h of fermentation. The L. plantarum exhibited high but varying degree of inhibition on the pathogens. The findings justify the bio-preservative roles of lactic acid bacteria in traditional cassava products.Key words: Bio-preservation, Lactobacillus plantarum, fermentation, cassava and pathogens

Electrochemical Analysis of Austenitic Stainless Steel (Type 904) Corrosion Using Egg Shell Powder in Sulphuric Acid Solution

Stainless steel is one of the most widely used metals in many industries resulting from the formation of protective film layer on their surface which prevents the metal to react with corrosive environments such as, sulphuric acid. This acid contains various impurities, including aggressive agents which increase the risk of corrosion damage depending on the type of stainless steel used. In addition, it has been shown that corrosion causes acceleration in electrochemical process leadin

Effect of frying treatments on texture and colour parameters of deep fat fried yellow fleshed cassava chips

Effects of frying treatments on texture (hardness) and colour parameters (L, a, b, Delta) during deep fat frying of yellowfleshed cassava root slices (TMS 01/1371) were investigated. Slices (dimension of 40mm × 25mm × 3 mm) were divided into three portions and subjected to vacuum frying (fresh slices) and atmospheric frying (fresh and predried slices) and equivalent thermal driving forces (ETDF) of 60∘C, 70∘C, and 80∘C were maintained during frying. The quality attributes investigated were best preserved in vacuum fried chips. The overall colour change in chips fried under vacuum conditions at 118∘C and 8 min was the least (21.20) compared to fresh and atmospherically predried ones (16.69 and 14.81, resp.). A sharp reduction in the breaking force was obtained for all frying treatments after 8 min and this effect was the least in vacuum fried chips. First-order kinetics modeled the changes in quality attributes for all the temperatures investigated. Rate constants k (min−1) obtained for vacuum frying were almost equal to that of atmospheric frying while activation energies for hardness and colour change were 53.30 and 467.11 KJ/mol, respectively. Quality attributes studied were best preserved during vacuum frying

Silicone oil as corrosion inhibitor for aluminium alloy in saline medium

Corrosion processes are responsible for huge losses in the industry. This deterioration of components results in loss of plant efficiency, total shutdown and aggressive damage in industries. Though organic, inorganic and mixed material inhibitors were used for a long time to combat corrosion, the environmental toxicity of inorganic corrosion inhibitors has prompted the search for organic corrosion inhibitors. In the search for this, the present study aims to investigate the inhibition action of silicone oil and their protective performance for aluminium alloy in 3.5% NaCl solution using electrochemical tests. Weight loss, corrosion rate, inhibition efficiency and potentiodynamic polarisation techniques were used in this study. The aluminium alloy samples exposed to the inhibitor showed a lower corrosion rate values and excellent polarisation resistance as compared with the corrosion rate samples without inhibitor. The corrosion inhibition rate increases with increasing the concentration of the silicone oil. The adsorption isotherm was confirmed by Langmuir adsorption isotherm