Enhancement of yield by application of salicylic acid in two cotton varieties grown in semi-arid tropics of Nizamabad

The research experiments conducted on the role of salicylic acid (SA) sprayed in three concentrations viz., 0.5 mM, 1.0 mM and 3.0 mM on the yield in terms of buds/plant, flowers/plant, number of bolls/plant, boll weight, fibre length, number of seeds/plant, 100 seed weight and cotton seed oil contents of two varieties of cotton (Gossypium herbaceum L.) viz., Bt- cotton and non-Bt plants grown in the semi-arid tropics of Nizamabad was studied. Nizamabad district soil is known for its salinity and the black soil which is largely responsible for the drought and saline stresses which hampers plant growth and metabolism. Application of three concentrations of SA stimulated the yield of both Bt-cotton and non-Bt cotton varieties. The Bt-cotton variety showed better performance over non-Bt varieties. SA at 3.0 mM conc. was found most effective in increasing the yield of both cotton varieties of over 1.0mM SA, 0.5mM SA applications as well as untreated controls. The enhancement of yield in terms of buds/plant, flowers/plant, number of bolls/plant, boll weight, fibre length, number of seeds/plant, 100 seed weight and cotton seed oil contents in both cotton varieties is an indicator that SA mitigated the negative effect of the semi-arid conditions of the soils in Nizamabad district.

Effects of cotton seed oil sludge on the performance and carcass characteristics of young rabbits

A feeding trial lasting 63 days was conducted using 60 weaned rabbits of mixed sexes and breeds with an average initial live weight of 487.50g. The rabbits were allotted to replicates each. Cotton seed oil sludge (CSOS) was included at 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12% levels of the experimental diets respectively. The diets were isonitrogenous (20% CP). The results showed that feed intake, weight gain and feed efficiency were significantly different (P<0.05) across the dietary treatments. The highest weight gain was observed on rabbits fed diet containing 12% level of cotton seed oil sludge (CSOS). The use of cotton seed oil sludge in rabbit diet was cost effective. The percentage reduction in feed cost per kilogram of diet for the 3,6,9 and 12% level of inclusion were 2.90, 6.43, 12.04 and 15.25% respectively. The dressing percentage and percent belly fat increased significantly (P<0.05) with increase in the level of cotton seed oil sludge. A non-significant but slight increase was observed with the carcass weight and weight of the major organs (P>0.05) as the level of cotton seed oil sludge increased in the diet. It was concluded that cotton seed oil sludge (CSOS) can be included up to 12% level in the diets of young rabbits without adverse effects on performance and carcass characteristics.

Exergy analysis in diesel engine with binary blends

Investigation on diesel engine with minimized fuel consumption rate and increased output power is not the meaningful procedure if irreversibility in the thermodynamic system is ignored. This current procedure is aimed to signify the importance of exergy analysis in diesel engine performance on the perspective of Second law of thermodynamics analysis. In this study, diesel-cotton seed oil blends were tested on engine running with direct fuel injection mode of operation. The experiments were conducted with Diesel(D), 5% cotton seed oil-95% diesel(CB5), 10% cotton seed oil-90% diesel(CB10) and 15% cotton seed oil-85% diesel(CB15) for estimation of brake power, energy rate and exergy rate in the fuel and exhaust, heat release rate, exergy destruction, ideal efficiency (I law) and actual (II law) efficiency. The results outcome that an increase in trend was observed in the fuel exergy and thermal exergy loss with engine speed for D, CB5, CB10 and CB15. The loss of exergy, heat release rate, % of exergy and exergy transferred through exhaust gases decreased for CB5, CB10 and CB15 compared to diesel.

Protectant Effect of Vegetable Oils against Cowpea Weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus) on Stored Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp]

Cowpea is one of the common edible annual herbaceous legume. Callosobruchus maculatus is one of the common post-harvest pest of cowpea.This work was aimed at determining the protectant effect of five vegetable oils; coconut oil, cotton seed oil, groundnut oil, palm oil and sesame oil for the protection of stored cowpea against cowpea weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus).The study was conducted in Gombe State University between October, 2018 and April, 2019. Black eye seeds were used for the experiment. A completely randomized design with five replicates per treatment was used.Black eyed seeds (susceptible variety) used for the experiment were subjected to different oil treatments namely: coconut, cotton, groundnut, palm and sesame oils applied at 0.4, 0.8 and 1.2 ml/100 g of cowpea equivalent to 4, 8 and 12 kg. Effect of the oils on weight lost and seed germination was also tested.Percentage adult mortality at 12 ml/Kg revealed that all the five oils killed 100% of the insects. Among the different edible oils evaluated, cotton seed oil was more effective killing 95% of the insect at 4 ml/kg and 100% at 8 ml/kg. The lowest mortality was recorded in the treatment with palm oil with 60 and 91.67% mortality at 4 and 8 ml/kg dose treatment respectively. Minimum percentage weight loss after 90 days of storage was observed in grains treated with cotton seed oil (1.95%) followed by sesame oil (2.00%) and groundnut oil (2.38%) at 12 ml/kg grains. Cotton seed oil, groundnut oil and sesame oil at doses between 8 and 12 ml/kg could be effective for protecting cowpea in storage against cowpea weevil for 90 days of storage.All the treatments indicated minimal effect on the germination of cowpea. The 8 ml/kg of cotton seed, groundnut and sesameoils investigated are promising bio friendly preservatives that could serve as an alternative formulations to synthetic chemical based insecticides for storage of cowpea.

Arrhenius-Type Relationship of Viscosity as a Function of Temperature for Mustard and Cotton Seed Oils

The knowledge and estimate of transport behaviours of fluids are very influential in heat and mass flow. In this study, an equation correlating the Arrhenius energy (Ea), the pre-exponential factor (A), the Arrhenius temperature (T) and the Arrhenius activation temperature (T*) is applied so as to buttress the depth of discussion. The results obtained from the viscosity experiments of Mustard and Cotton seed oils at different temperature ranges offers very good results statistically. The Activation energy Ea, Entropic (pre-exponential) factor A, Arrhenius temperature TA and the Arrhenius activation temperature for the mustard oil were observed to be 374.37381 J/mole, 12.39260595 cP, -17.89797783 oC, 45.051 oC respectively while Activation energy Ea, Entropic (pre-exponential) factor A, Arrhenius temperature TA and the Arrhenius activation temperature for the cotton seed oil are respectively 451.90611 J/mole, 8.210386507 cP, - 25.8292961 oC, 54.381 oC. The coefficients of regressions (R2) for the graph of the natural log of viscosity versus reciprocal of temperature (Figures 2 and 4) for the mustard oil and cotton seed oil are 0.9996 and 0.9996 respectively. Since the correlation coefficient is the measure of how well a collection of data points can be modeled by a line, we can hence conclude that the natural log of the viscosity of both seed oil samples versus the inverse of their respective temperatures have a very good fit.

MULTI-RESPONSE OPTIMIZATION OF TRANSESTERIFICATION PARAMETERS OF COTTON SEED OIL USING GREY RELATIONAL ANALYSIS IN TAGUCHI METHOD FOR QUENCHING APPLICATION

The present investigation involves Taguchi Grey relational analysis-based optimization of transesterification process parameters such as methanol to oil molar ration, catalyst loading and temperature and their effect on both per cent fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield and heat transfer coefficient (HTC) of transesterified cotton seed oil (TC). A Taguchi L9 orthogonal array was designed and nine experimental runs were conducted based on the designed experiments. The FAME (ester) yield and HTC were recorded for each experiment. Based on the average responses computed from Taguchi grey relational analysis, methanol to oil molar ration of 9:1 (32.6 wt% of methanol), catalyst loading of 0.5 wt% and temperature of 60 oC were identified to be the optimal parameters. Confirmation test conducted using the optimal parameters setting demonstrated an improvement of 0.3% in grey relational grade. Methyl ester group was detected in TC on 1438.8 cm-1 by FTIR spectra. Cooling curve analysis of the TC from the confirmation experiment indicated outstanding quenching performance compared to raw cotton seed oil (FC) and SAE40.