Environmental issues resulting from production and application of wood charcoal can be addressed by using biomass briquettes as alternative. This research was undertaken to develop and evaluate briquette from jatropha, groundnut and melon seed residues. Samples of the briquette were formed from mixtures of 0.32-0.39 kg carbonised residues, 0.30-0.40 kg starch and 0.02- 0.04 kg water. Physical and mechanical properties of the briquette samples including calorific value, bulk density and breaking force were determined using standard methods. Box-Bekhen Design Methodology was used to determine the optimum briquette blend. The results showed that the optimal briquette blend gave values of 4711.87 kcal.kg–1 calorific value, 282.59 kg m–3 bulk density and 1.36 kN breaking force, with a desirability index of 61.5%. A comparative analysis of the properties of the optimal briquette with that of a wood charcoal indicates no significant difference (P<0.05). This implies that the briquette can serve as an alternative energy source for cooking in rural communities.

Coffee has been identified as a crop that has the potential to generate foreign earning for local investors but the cost of imported roasting machine is very high thus making it unaffordable for interested agripreneurs. This project detailed the development of coffee roaster using locally available materials thus reducing the cost of processing as well as achieving optimum quality. The roasting capacity of the roaster is 25kg. The roaster consists of a roasting drum, paddles on a speed reduction gear powered by electric motor, frame, cooling fan and cooling unit with control board unit. The roaster attained a temperature of 200°, 250° and 300°C in 5, 7 and 10 minutes respectively.

Groundnut (Arachis hypogeae. L) is an important oil seed grown in over 100 countries for its nutritional value. In order to improve its storability and value, various ways of processing the seeds have been adopted among which is the roasting and removal of husk or rind from the roasted groundnuts. The process of removing of groundnut husk is mostly done manually and inappropriate for large scale processing. In order to improve groundnut seed husk dehulling process through mechanization, a roasted groundnut seed dehulling machine was developed and the effects of operating speed of the machine and moisture content of the seed on the on the efficiency of the machine was studied. 1kg of the roasted groundnut in five replicates with moisture content of 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0 and 2.2 % (w.b) respectively, was fed into the machine at different speed of 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 rpm for each replicate. The machine had the best dehulling efficiencies of 80%, 78%, 77%, 90% and 73% at the lowest speed (30 rpm) while the lowest efficiency of 57%, 49%, 53%, 52% and 46% was recorded at the highest speed (50 rpm) in all moisture content (1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0 and 2.2%) respectively. The best performance efficiency of 90% was gotten at 30 rpm and moisture content of 2.0 % (w.b). Hence, an optimum operating condition was established for the machine.

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