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In order to reduce the country’s over dependence on oil and gas economy and establish a strong link between the downstream petroleum industry and agricultural activities, the Nigerian government has recently indicated commitment to biofuels production from local feedstock. Emphasis was given to bioethanol and biodiesel with projected annual local market possibility of 5.04 billion and 900 million Liters respectively. The study reports an over view of the biofuels policy and a survey of the public opinions on the potential impacts of its implementation. A questionnaire containing six research questions, covering the key positive and negative impacts of commercial biofuels production was designed in line with the policy objectives. 200 samples were randomly distributed to people with good biofuels education across the country, within 90 days. The recovered questionnaires (PQR = 92.50 %) were treated statistically. Additional respondents’ comments were also captured and analysed. 97.30 % of the respondents expressed optimism in terms of positive impacts such as generation of revenue to the government, investments, jobs creation, energy access to rural areas and environmental sustainability. However, the remaining respondents with percentage cumulative response (PCR) of 2.7 % showed that negative consequences such as food price hike, soil degradation and diversion of food land would be the net result due to high level of corruption, poor technology and lack of transportation network. To achieve the policy objectives, appropriate planning is required. Research covering the views of all stake holders and lessons from prior countries like Brazil and India would be very important. Emphasis should be given to pre-exploited agricultural land and non-food crops that are adaptive to current and foreseeable climatic conditions in Nigeria.

In this study the effect of speed, load and blend ratio on the performance of a multicylinder indirect injection diesel engine has been determined. Rubber seed/palm oil mixture at an equal blend ratio (50:50 vol. %) was used for biodiesel production with the motivation of cost reduction and properties enhancement. The oil acid value of 33.4 mg KOH/g oil was reduced to 1.42 mg KOH/g oil via an esterification process followed by transesterification using a hydrodynamic cavitation reactor. Blends of 5-20 vol. % biodiesel to diesel fuel were prepared. A statistical tool, Box-Behnken design (BBD) based on response surface methodology was used to predict and to assess the combined effects of variables (speed, load and blend) on the responses, such as torque, power, brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and brake thermal efficiency (BTE). The load was found to be the most influential variable both individually and in combination compared to the speed and blend. A strong effect of speed over the responses was noticed except for torque, whereas its combined effect was insignificant except for BSFC and BTE. No significant contribution was observed for the blend over the response except for torque. Furthermore, the models developed fitted the experimental results of all the responses investigated.

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