The aim to evaluate the raw material (agroforestry residues) for particleboard manufacture from the: pseudostem of Musa paradisiaca; the stem and pods of Theobroma cacao; and the sawdust of Ceiba pentandra. The particleboards produced from these cellulosic residues are mixed with cassava starch's natural adhesive and urea formaldehyde's synthetic adhesive. The results indicate that lignin, α-cellulose, hemicellulose, and extractives ranged from 6.2-19.0%, 41.4-50.2%, 24.4-31.5%, and 6.8-18.8% respectively and they were significantly different from each other. Additionally, tannins, alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids, phenols, glycosides, and sterols were the phytochemicals present in biomass materials in different quantities. Also, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and boron were the elementals significantly present in the manufactured particleboards in the range of 35.3-52.8, 30.2-43.0, 4.2-24.0, and 3.2-9.9 percentage concentration respectively. As for the mechanical properties, it was verified that the cellulose content influenced 96.5% of the variability of the modulus of rupture (MOR) values. Understanding the distribution, functional properties, and impact of biomass organic, phytochemicals and elemental constitutions is an impetus to the improvement of processes with higher retention of these constitutions in the utilization of agroforest residues in the particleboard industry. These chemical compositions of the residues under study contributed largely to the characteristics of the manufactured particleboards.

Performance characterization of a locally developed fish smoke-drying kiln (10 kg capacity) was conducted using charcoal and briquette as fuel materials. Samples of fresh African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) weighing1.03±0.24 kg, charcoal of tropical hardwood (Anthonotha macophylla) and briquette produced from a combination of saw dust, rice husk, coconut husk and palm kernel shell were procured and used for the study. A completely randomized design (CRD) with three replicates was employed for this study and LSD among treatment means determined at p ≤ 0.05. Data was collected on moisture content of smoked-dried fish, smoke-drying time, drying rate, energy expended, specific fuel consumption and energy efficiency of kiln. Results showed that the energy efficiency of kiln was 97.02% and 98.45% and specific fuel consumption was 2.57 and 4.20 for charcoal and briquette, respectively. The energy expended by charcoal and briquette fuel materials were 206 MJ and 249.6 MJ, respectively. The energy expended, energy efficiency and specific fuel consumption were higher for briquette than charcoal. The use of charcoal offered higher moisture removal and drying rate for smoke-drying process than briquette but no significant difference was observed. Conversely, using briquette fuel material required almost two extra hours to smoke-dry 1kg of catfish sample compared to using charcoal. Breakeven with charcoal as main fuel material for custom hiring of the smoke-drying kiln occurs at 952 hours vis-à-vis 998 hours when briquette is used. Economically, briquette compares closely with charcoal, and could be considered a good alternative fuel material for smoke-drying of fish. Future research should conduct organoleptic assessment on fish smoked with charcoal and briquette to ascertain consumer acceptability of the final produce.