Energy from biomass is increasingly gaining attention amidst the environmental challenges of coal and fossil fuels. This study investigated the effects of inert gases (N₂, CO₂, and N₂/CO₂) on intermediate pyrolysis and product properties from Bambara Groundnut Shells (BGS) (shells from an underutilized crop, which has high nutritional values). N₂/CO₂ atmosphere roughly represents flue gas. The results showed that the inert gases did not significantly affect the yields of bio-oil, biochar, and syngas. The pH of bio-oil ranged from 5.2–5.8, indicating the minimum presence of acids in bio-oil. The CHNS analysis showed that all bio-oil and biochar had their carbon content within 50.04–60.49 wt.%. The FESEM resulted in a wide range of pore sizes in biochar produced in an N₂/CO₂ atmosphere. The GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) analysis revealed the presence of compounds which can be categorized as alkene, acid, benzene derivatives, ketone, phenol derivatives, alcohol, aldehyde, alkyl, and ester. However, the presence of N₂/CO₂ gas favored alcohol and phenol production significantly.

Water contamination seems unavoidable as many human activities involve the use of water in one way or the other. Chemical coagulants, especially aluminium based, which are widely used in treatment of wastewater or contaminated water have been associated with some health issues. Research on the use of plant based coagulants in water treatment now draws a lot of attentions, not only because the natural coagulants are presumed safe but also because of their biodegradable nature. In this present study, efforts have been made to evaluate the effectiveness of locally available tamarind seed powder as natural coagulant and Sodom apple (Calotropis procera) as coagulant aid for the treatment of textile wastewater. The tests were carried out using the conventional jar test apparatus at various pH and coagulant dosage with no aid added. Also, three sets of jar test experiments were performed at constant values of coagulant dosage and pH (which were found to be favourable in the first experiments) by varying the dosage of liquid and solid coagulant aid as well as time. The results obtained show that pH slightly affected the pollutants removal efficiency of the unaided coagulation. The neutral pH was found to be favourable with turbidity and colour removal of 22.25% and 30.36% respectively. The optimum mixing time of turbidity removal efficiency was found to be 2 min with rapid mixing of 30 seconds and 1½ min of slow mixing with turbidity and colour removal of 69.48% and 60.53% respectively. The optimum dosage was found to be 4.0 g of coagulant and 1.0 g of coagulant aid for turbidity, total dissolved solid and colour removal efficiency.

Biomass is among the most promising energy source in the twenty-first century amidst the energy scenario in the global community as a carbon-neutral fuel. Climate change is a global threat to the ecosystem and will be minimized by the introduction of renewable energy into the stream of the world energy projects. This study focuses on drawbacks and prospects of the thermochemical technology such as bubbling fluidized bed, circulating fluidized bed, conical spouted bed, rotary cone, auger and ablative reactors. The challenges are complexities in scale-up of the technologies, sustainability of non - food crop and biomass residues supply, bulkiness and high moisture content, transport network to a centralized storage facility and deoxygenated catalysts development for a higher purity of bio-oil yield and stability. However, the bio-oil yield for BFB, CFB, CSB, RC, A-R and AbR are at an average of 3.52-60, 45.2-75, 9.93–70, 14.27–51.8, 21.7-53.6, 50–70 wt.% respectively. The BFB & CFB are often used, while the AbR shows the highest bio-oil yield. The most promising technology is the AbR with a high propensity of more than 70wt.% bio-oil yield. Therefore, a techno-economic analysis of the technologies of specific capacity across board be employed for equipment selection, simplified process plant; higher yield with cost-effective operation and maintenance cost etc. Global biodiesel production has been projected from (36 to 39) bln L between 2017-2027 [1] when achieved will go a long way in curtailing the effect of climate change.