**6. References**


velocity had contributed to longer residence time for carbon to complete the reaction with O2 or with CO, CO2 and H2O and consequently decreasing in the carbon conversion

Air gasification of agricultural wastes was successfully performed in a lab scale fluidized bed gasifier, producing producer gas mainly hydrogen which could replaced fossil fuel in the near future. Among the gasification parameters tested, the gasification temperature and equivalence ratio appeared to have the most pronounced effect on the hydrogen performance. Hydrogen production is favoured by an increasing temperature and hydrogen yield is enhanced as the water gas shift reaction goes to the completion with reducing of CO and CO2 in the product gas. The influence of equivalence ratio on the performance of a gasifier could be regarded as the effect of reactor temperature as the reactor was found to be ER dependent. As a higher equivalence (ER) had complex effects on tests results and there existed an optimal value for this factor, which was different according to different operating parameters. The feeding rate and biomass particle size would only show minor effect during the gasification process. In view of laboratory scale, the optimum conditions for hydrogen production in air gasification for studied biomass feedstock can be summarised as the following; a) temperature of gasification zone (950-1000°C); b) Equivalence ratio 0.23 and c) feeding rate at 0.70 kg/hr and d) Particle size (1-3 mm). The obtained results deduced to the conclusion that agricultural wastes are potential candidate for hydrogen production as an alternative renewable energy source and partially reduced the landfill problems of

This work is financially supported by a Science Fund Grant by the Ministry of Science,

Babu S. P. (1995). Thermal gasification of biomass technology developments. *Biomass and* 

Cao Y., Wang Y., Riley J.T., Pan W.P. (2006). A novel biomass air gasification process for

Chatterjee, P.K., A.B. Datta and K.M. Kundu (1995). Fluidized Bed Gasification of Coal. *The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering*, Vol. 73, pp. 204–210, ISSN 00084034. Chen G., Andries J., Luo Z., Spliethoff H. (2003). Biomass pyrolysis/gasification for product

*and Management*.; Vol. 44, No. 11 (July 2003), pp. 1875-1884, ISSN 01968904. Dawson L. and Boopathy R. (2008). Cellulosic ethanol production from sugarcane bagasse

producing tar-free higher heating value fuel gas. *Fuel Processing Technology*, Vol.87,

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without enzymatic saccharification. Bioresources Technology, Vol.3, (January 2008),

Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) of Malaysia (03-01-04-SF0530).

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efficiency.

**4. Conclusion** 

agricultural residues.

**5. Acknowledgment** 

**6. References** 


**12** 

*1South Africa 2Malaysia* 

*3Niger State Nigeria* 

**Extraction and Optimization of Oil from Moringa** 

**Oleifera Seed as an Alternative Feedstock for** 

A.S. Abdulkareem1, H. Uthman2, A.S. Afolabi1 and O.L. Awenebe3 *1Department of Civil and Chemical Engineering, College of Science, Engineering and* 

*3Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering and Engineering* 

*2Membrane Research Unit (MRU), Block L-01, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM),* 

Energy production for industrial and domestic purpose has primarily been based upon the combustion of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal and it has been reported that these resources are finite and pose significant environmental impact from their combustion (Carraretto et al., 2004; Abdulkareem & Odigure, 2002; Odigure & Abdulkareem, 2001). It has been predicted that coal will be a viable energy resource for 90-200years, while the world oil supply is reaching its peak due to over dependence on oil consumption (Odigure et al., 2003). This was blame on the inability of energy sector to balance the oil supply with the increasing demand by various sectors including domestic consumption (Abdulkareem, 2005). Like any other commodity, fossil fuel price is also influence by shortage or oversupply and it has been reported that the change in demand as well as supply by the OPEC and non OPEC nations will greatly affects the price of the oil for many years (Abdulkareem, 2005). In other to meet up with the energy demand worldwide, government and oil sector embarks on the programme of new oil discoveries, and it has been reported that searching for new oil is a loss to the companies. For instance, about ten major oil companies spent \$8 billion on searching for new oil; results of their search only produce commercial discoveries of oil worth approximately \$4 billion. Consequently, the oil companies now consider searching for new oil not economical and unable to replace their rapidly depleting resources (Abdulkareem & Odigure, 2006; Abdulkareem & Odigure, 2010; Ahmmad et al., 2011; Udaeta et al., 2007). Apart from the price instability of the fossil fuel which is the major sources of energy, environmental pollution is also a major problem emanated from over dependence on fossil fuel. Combustion of fossil fuel is harmful to human health and the environment, and there is an increasing campaign for cleaner burning

**1. Introduction** 

**the Production of Biodiesel** 

*Technology, University of South Africa, Johannesburg,* 

*Technology, Federal University of Technology, Minna,* 

*International Campus, Jalan Semarak, 54100 WP, Kuala Lampur* 

