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Gadam sorghum stalks are agricultural residues which can be hydrolyzed into fermentable sugars that can be used to produce bioethanol which is a renewable source of energy. In order to produce bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass such as Gadam sorghum stalks, several processes including hydrolysis are involved. However, the use of lignocellulosic biomass for bioethanol production is hindered by the low yield of fermentable sugars obtained during hydrolysis. The lack of sufficient information on optimal conditions governing hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass leads to inefficient process which hinders the economic viability of large-scale bioethanol production. The objective of this study was to optimize reaction conditions involved in concentrated sulphuric acid hydrolysis of Gadam sorghum stalks. During hydrolysis, the conditions that were varied included temperature (40°C–80°C), time (30-90 minutes), and concentration of acid (30%-70%, w / w ). Central composite rotatable design was used to optimize and establish optimum level of hydrolysis conditions. Response surface methodology and analysis of variance were used to interprete the results. The results of hydrolysis revealed that the highest yield of glucose was 87.54% ( w / w ) which was realized at 60°C hydrolysis temperature, 60 minutes hydrolysis period, and 50% ( w / w ) concentration of sulphuric acid. In addition, the lowest glucose yield was 45.59% ( w / w ) which was realized at 60°C hydrolysis temperature, 60 minutes hydrolysis period, and 16.36% ( w / w ) sulphuric acid concentration. Concentrated sulphuric acid hydrolysis of Gadam sorghum stalks results in high yield of fermentable sugars. These results reveal that Gadam sorghum stalks are viable substrates for the production of fermentable sugars.

As wind turbines continue to grow in size and flexibility and are deployed in more hostile environments, the need to develop advanced control schemes will be essential to deliver the lowest possible energy costs. A sophisticated control strategy is presented to compensate for the complicated effects of a stochastic operating environment and nonlinearities inherent in wind turbine generator (WTG) dynamics that cause parametric uncertainties. In low to medium winds the objective is to follow wind speed variations with the target of optimizing aerodynamic efficiency. At above-rated wind speeds, the controller's purpose is to add damping to the drive train while the pitch control mechanism ensures the maximum power constraint is respected, thereby preventing rotor overspeed. Simulations based on modeling the wind speed as a stochastic process, and the WTG as a multimass model with a soft shaft linking the turbine with the asynchronous generator, show the efficacy of the proposed paradigm in meeting the control objectives.

This project is intended to carry out an engineering, social and economic evaluation of\ud food processing in the rural areas of Malawi and Kenya. The aim is to collect the\ud information necessary for designing a clean and low-cost energy system for\ud co-generation of heat and electricity from agricultural waste to support food processing. the objective of this research is to survey the following aspects:\ud Technical: The existing energy-intensive food processing industries in the partner\ud countries.\ud Social: Current and historic social resources: e.g. the designers, operators and\ud beneficiaries of the existing processes; Locally available skills for designing and operating alternative energy solutions.\ud End-user: Current and historical regional usages of the agricultural products; Local views on existing problems and their desired goals.