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The paper investigates the impact of Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the country. Using a dynamic error correction mechanism models and cointegration approach the paper obtained that the influence of the commission in attracting FDI to the country has not been significant over the period of study. This reason for this result could be attributed to lack of autonomy for this commission and lack of continuity in government policies that has led to neglect of this commission over time. The paper recommends a guided autonomy for the agency and more attention devoted to this commission in order for the commission to play its role of attracting foreign direct investment into the country.

Hydrogen has the potential to be a clean and sustainable alternative to fossil fuel especially if it is produced from renewable sources such as biomass. Gasification is the thermochemical conversion of biomass to a mixture of gases including hydrogen. The percentage yield of each constituent of the mixture is a function of some factors. This article highlights various parameters such as operating conditions; gasifier type; biomass type and composition; and gasification agents that influence the yield of hydrogen in the product gas. Economic evaluation of hydrogen from different sources was also presented. The hydrogen production from gasification process appears to be the most economic process amongst other hydrogen production processes considered. The process has the potential to be developed as an alternative to the conventional hydrogen production process.

This study conducted experiments used for the development of both the regression model with uncertainty analysis and the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model for the prediction of the yield of biodiesel (YB) produced from castor oil in the presence of calcium oxide derived from the eggshell. Box Behnken design (BBD) was used to develop the experimental condition for five different variables while YB was the response. Uncertainty analysis was determined from Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). The model was optimized and validated before the generated data was applied in the three ANFIS modelling techniques. Root mean square error (RMSE), coefficient of correlation (R 2 ) and average percentage error (APE) were used to determine the accuracy of the models developed. The result of this modelling shows that the optimum YB (94.29%) was achieved at a methanol to oil ratio of 11.48, catalyst loading of 3.38 wt%, reaction time of 1.84 h, the temperature of 60.2 °C, and agitation of 343.5 rpm. The prediction from BBD, ANFIS and MCS agreed that the methanol to oil ratio was the most important parameter for investigation. The considered ANFIS model technique (subtractive clustering) for the modelling of YB outperformed BBD model. The novelty of this study are the determination of the optimum condition for the transesterification of castor oil in the presence of thermally treated anthill, the establishment of the use of ANFIS in modelling YB, the prediction of the influence of variables on YB using both statistical and, AI techniques and validation of the predictions from the two methods using MCS.

The source of catalyst and feedstock used for transesterification of oil play a significant role in cost, and starvation of consumers of oil especially for edible oil sources. This investigation aimed at the transesterification of castor oil with the aid of calcined anthill as the catalyst support. Box Behnken Design (BBD) of the Response Surface methodology was employed to study the relationship among the variable of production such as time (1 – 3 h), temperature (40 – 60oC), catalyst loading (1 – 9 g), methanol volume (10 – 60 ml) and agitation rate (100 – 400 rpm) on yield of biodiesel produced. The synthesized catalyst was characterized using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) while biodiesel produced was characterized through determination of physicochemical characterized and function group applicable to biodiesel. The calcined anthill was found to contain some mixed basic oxides. The physicochemical properties of produced biodiesel are within the American Standard Test Methods (ASTM) range (except density that is higher), and the functional groups found in biodiesel are typical of vibrations presence in biodiesel. The optimum condition for a volume of 11.73 ml, agitation of 166.458 rpm, reaction time of 2.34375 hrs, temperature of 59.4552oC, catalyst loading of 1.14 g, and an optimal yield of 90.59 %.