Browsing by Author "Awudza, Johannes A.M."

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    Assessment of quantities and composition of corn stover in Ghana and their conversion into bioethanol
    (Elsevier, 2021) Mensah, Michael Baah; Jumpah, Henry; Boadi, Nathaniel O.; Awudza, Johannes A.M.; 0000-0002-8080-4812
    Corn stover (CS) has currently received great attention worldwide as a potential feedstock for the production of bioethanol as alternative renewable fuel or additive to gasoline. This work evaluates the quantities and chemical characteristics of the CS available in Ghana and their conversion into bioethanol. The average quantity of CS production in Ghana per year was estimated to be 1.77 × 106 t. The cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin contents of CS obtained from Pioneer 30 W 40, a local maize variety, were found to be 37.72 %, 20.62 %, and 30.50 %, respectively. Alkali pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of the CS yielded a reducing sugar concentration of 157.96 mg/ml within 24 h and an ethanol yield of 0.045 l/kg. It was estimated that 40 % of the average annual CS production has the potential of yielding 140.855 × 106 l of bioethanol.
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    Synthesis of CdS and PbS nanoparticles by the thermal decomposition of ethyl xanthate complexes in castor oil using the heat-up technique
    (Elsevier, 2020) Mensah, Michael Baah; Awudza, Johannes A.M.; Revaprasadu, Neerish; O’Brien, Paul; 0000-0002-8080-4812
    Castor oil contains a range of fatty acids of which a high proportion is ricinoleic acid. We report the syntheses of CdS and PbS nanoparticles by the thermal decomposition of ethyl xanthate complexes of cadmium and lead in castor oil using the heat-up synthesis technique. The castor-oil capped CdS nanoparticles showed cubic zinc blende and wurtzite crystal structures and displayed band gap range of 2.63–2.84 eV. The CdS formed near spherical clusters of nanocrystals with average particle size of 6.78 (±1.89) nm. The castor-oil capped PbS nanoparticles showed a rocksalt crystal structure and displayed an average band gap of 0.85 eV. The PbS showed variety of morphologies of nanostructured particles ranging from rods to belts. The average width and length of the PbS nanobelts observed were 22.2 (±2.3) nm and 225.9 (±23.3) nm respectively.