I nternational J ournal of Scientific Research in Environmental Sciences (I J SRES), 1 (11), pp.

337-343, 2013
Available online at http://www.ijsrpub.com/ijsres
ISSN: 2322-4983; 2013 IJSRPUB
http://dx.doi.org/10.12983/ijsres-2013-p337-343
337

Full Length Research Paper

Engineering Properties of Bitter Kola Nuts and Shell As Potentials for Development
Processing Machines

Rotimi Davies
1*
, Usman Shehu Mohammed
2


1
Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Amassoma, Bayelsa
State, Nigeria
2
Department of Agricultural Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria
*
Correspondence: rotimidavies@yahoo.com

Received 09 September 2013; Accepted 24 October 2013

Abstract. The knowledge of engineering properties of any biomaterial is fundamental. It facilitates the design and
development of equipment for harvesting, handling, conveying cleaning, delivering, separation, packing, storing, drying,
mechanical oil extraction and processing of agricultural products. The study was conducted to investigate the physical,
mechanical and frictional properties of bitter kola nut and shell, namely, axial dimensions, 1000 unit mass, arithmetic mean
diameter, geometric mean diameter, surface area, sphericity, aspect ratio, bulk density, true density, porosity and angle of
repose and coefficient of static friction were determined using standard methods. The engineering properties of bitter kola nut
and shell were investigated at the moisture content of 20.8% and 23.1% dry basis respectively. The result obtained from the
study revealed mean length, width, thickness, arithmetic and geometric diameter, sphericity, surface area and 1000unit mass
ranged from 21.90-24.13 mm, 11.65-12.96 mm, 12.07-19.10 mm,15.21-22.03 mm, 14.55- 18.14 mm, 65- 75%, 447.9-1033.9
mm and 3087.05- 3350.12 g respectively. The coefficient of static friction was determined for four frictional surfaces, namely,
fibreglass, plywood, galvanized steel and rubber. The coefficient of static friction was the highest for bitter kola nut and shell
on rubber surface and lowest for fiberglass.

Key words: bitter kola, engineering properties, moisture content, axial dimension.

1. INTRODUCTION

Bitter kola otherwise known as (Garcinia kola) is an
important medicinal crop of the tropics. It regarded as
one of the most important crops used in treating
purgative, antiparasitic, antimicrobial, treatment
of bronchitis, throat infections and prevention of
relieve colic, cure head or chest colds and relieve
cough in the continent of Africa. For bitter kola nut
and shell, whose medicinal and economic potential are
increases growing fast, there is much need to develop
appropriate technology and equipment for various unit
operations and to minimize the drudgery and improve
the sanitation of the processing operations. This
required the knowledge of physical properties of the
crop. The knowledge of engineering properties of
bitter kola nut and shell like any other biomaterial is
fundamental because it facilitates the design and
development of equipment for harvesting, handling,
conveying cleaning, delivering, separation, packing,
storing, drying, mechanical oil extraction and
processing of agricultural products, their physical
properties have to be known (Aviara et al., 2005;
Davies, 2011). Presently, the equipment used in
processing bitter kola nut and shell have been
generally design without taken into cognizant the
physical properties of bitter kola nut and shell which
include the size, mass, bulk density, true density,
sphericity, porosity, coefficient of static friction and
angle of repose and resultant systems leads to
reduction in working efficiency and increased product
losses (Manuwa and Afuye, 2004; Razari et al., 2007).
The engineering properties have been studied for
various agricultural products by other researchers such
as almond nut and kernel (Aydin, 2003), soybean
(Manuwa and Afuye, 2004 Davies and El-Okene,
2009), African nutmeg (Burubai et al., 2007), caper
fruit (Sessiz et al., 2005) cocoa bean (Bart-plange and
Baryeh, 2002), jatropha seed and karanja kernel
(Pradhan et al., 2008), gbafilo fruit and kernel and
cowpea (Davies and Zibokere, 2011), pigeon pea
(Shepherd and Bhardwaj (1986), locust bean seed
(Ogunjimi et al., 2002), wheat (Tabatabaefa, 2003)
and pistachio nut and its kernel (Razari et al., 2007)
and groundnut grain (Davies, 2009). Investigation was
therefore carried out to determine the engineering
properties of bitter kola nut and shell such as axial
dimension, geometric and arithmetic mean diameter,
sphericity, surface area, unit mass, 1000 grain mass,
true volume, true and bulk densities, porosity, angle of
repose and static coefficient of friction of bitter kola
nut and shell in order to develop appropriate
equipment that will alleviate laborious nature
experience in processing the crop.
Davies and Mohammed
Engineering Properties of Bitter Kola Nuts and Shell As Potentials for Development Processing Machines
338
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

The bitter kola was bought from Abuloma market,
Port Harcourt in Rivers state, Nigeria on 21th June,
2012. The sample was selected and cleaned manually
to ensure that the bitter kola nut and shell were free of
dirt, broken ones and other foreign materials. The
bitter kola nut and shell were kept in the room
temperature for five days. The experiments were
conducted for the bitter kola at the moisture content
levels of 20.1% for bitter kola nut and 23.8 % for
bitter kola shell dry basis respectively. Three samples
each weighing 15 g was placed in an oven set at 103
2C for 24 hours. Thus, seeds samples of the desired
moisture level were prepared by adding calculated
amount of distilled water and sealed in separate
airtight polythene bags. The seed was kept in
refrigerator at a temperature of 5 for one week to
enable the moisture to distribute uniformly (Davies
and El- Okene, 2009). To prepare bitter kola nut and
shell with higher moisture contents, the required
amount distilled water was calculated from the
following equation and added to the samples
(Kashaninejad et al., 2005):
(

=
1
2 1
1 2
100 M
M M
W W
(1)
where, W
1
and W
2
are mass of the sample and
distilled water (g), and M
1
and M
2
are initial and final
moisture contents (% d.b.) respectively.
For this experiment, 100 bitter kola nut and shell
were randomly selected, the length, width and
thickness and mass of bitter kola nut and shell were
measured using a micrometer screw gauge with a
reading of 0.01 mm. The average diameter was
calculated by using the arithmetic mean and geometer
means of the three axial dimensions. The arithmetic
mean diameter and geometric mean diameter of the
bitter kola nut and shell were calculated according to
Galedar et al., 2008 and Mohsenin, 1980.
The sphericity was calculated based on Koocheki
et al. 2007 and Milani 2007. The surface area was
calculated according to McCabe et al., (1986). The
aspect ratio was determined according to Maduako
and Faborode, (1990).The volume was calculated as
cited by Miller (1987). The 1000 unit mass was
determined using precision electronic balance to an
accuracy of 0.01g. 50 randomly selected bitter kola
nut and shell were weighed and multiplied by 20. The
reported value was a mean of 20 replications. The
bulk bitter kola nut and shell were put into a container
with known mass and volume (500ml) from a height
of 150 mm at a constant rate Bulk density was
calculated from the mass of bulk seeds divided by the
volume containing mass (Garnayak et al., 2008). The
true density was determined using the unit values of
unit volume and unit mass of individual seed and
calculated using the following relationship by Li et al.
(2008). The porosity of the bulk bitter kola nut and
shell was computed from the values of the true density
and bulk density of the seed by using the relationship
given by Mohsenin (1980).
The static coefficient of friction for bitter kola nut
and shell determined with respect to four test surfaces
namely plywood, galvanized iron sheet, rubber sheet
and fibreglass. A glass box of 150mm length, 100mm
width and 40mm height without base and lid was
filled with sample and placed on an adjustable tilting
plate, faced with test surface. The sample container
was raised slightly (5 10 mm) so as not to touch the
surface. The inclination of the test surface was
increased gradually with a screw device until the box
just started to slide down and the angle of tilt was
measured from a graduated scale. For each replicate,
the sample in the container was emptied and refill
with a new sample (Joshi et al., 1993). The static
coefficient of friction was calculated based on this
equation, (Mohsenin, 1980).
The static angle of repose with the horizontal at
which the material will stand when piled. This was
determined using topless and bottomless cylinder of
0.15 m diameter and 0.25 m height. The cylinder was
placed at the centre of a raise circular plate having a
diameter of 0.35m and was filled with bitter kola nut
and shell. The cylinder was raised slowly until it
formed a cone on a circular plane. The height of the
cone was measured and the filling angle of repose was
calculated based on the following relationship
established by (Karababa, 2006 and Kaleemullah and
Gunaseka, 2002).

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Some engineering properties such as axial
dimensions, arithmetic and geometric mean diameter,
sphericity, volume, 1000 unit mass and surface area of
bitter kola nut and shell investigated at moisture
content are presented in Table 1.These parameters
were investigated at moisture content 20% for bitter
kola seeds and 23.7% for dry basis. The mean length,
width and thickness of bitter kola seeds ranged
between 17.20-26.51 mm and 32.66-22.56, 9.43-14.73
mm and 12.09-16.31, 10.50-13.73 mm and 17.74-
22.10 respectively. The corresponding mean size of
the fresh dura palm kernel were length, width and
thickness were found to be 30.25 mm, 19.94 mm and
15.66 mm, respectively (Owolarafe et al., 2007). The
corresponding values of axial dimensions for palm
kernel (Dura variety), average length, width and
thickness ranged from 26.50 - 44.00 mm, 16.50 -
28.00 mm and 21.50 -34.50mm respectively
(Mijinyawa and Omoikhoje, 2005). The parameters
International Journal of Scientific Research in Environmental Sciences (IJSRES), 1 (11), pp. 337-343, 2013
339
are essential for the design of appropriate equipment
for processing such as cleaning, sorting, packaging
and storage processes. The values of the measured
parameters and the corresponding values indicated
that the machines required for utilization and
processing these products would be different. The
mean geometric and arithmetic mean diameter of
bitter kola seeds ranged from 12.38 to 18.15 mm and
17.46 to 23.69 mm and11.94 to17.28 mm and 16.91 to
22.75 mm respectively. The geometric and arithmetic
mean diameters of palm fruit ranged from 21.36 to
29.23 mm and 20.80 to 27.80 mm (Davies, 2012). The
corresponding values for watermelon as reported
Koocheki et al. (2007) were 6.89 and 8.24mm for
Kolaleh, 8.37 and 10.79 mm for Ghemez and 7.61 and
9.28 mm for Sarakhsi at moisture content of 5.02,
4.75 and 4.55% wet basis.
The mean surface area of bitter kola nut and shell
were 447.9mm and 898.4mm.Themean surface area
of gbafilo fruit and kernel ranged from 1584.80 to
2455.90 mm and 737.37 to 1378.90 mm (Davies and
Zibokere et al., 2011). The mean sphericity value
ranged from 65% to 68% for bitter kola nut and 69%
to 75% for bitter kola shell. The sphericity was
observed for C. lunatus, 53%, C. edulis, 47% and C.
vulgaris, 45% (Davies and Zibokere et al., 2011). The
mean sphericity of bitter kola shell and nut were
significantly different (P<0.05). Galedar et al. (2008)
reported sphericity for pistachio nut at moisture
content of 5.83% and kernel at moisture content of
6.03% were 69.34% and 72.59% respectively.
According to Bal and Mishra (1988) and Garnyak
(2008) considered any grain, fruit and seed as
spherical when the sphericity value is above 80 and
70% respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that
bitter kola shell is spherical based on the sphericity
values falls within the acceptable range. The aspect
ratio of bitter kola shell and nut was 54.83% and
53.59%. It can be concluded that the bitter kola shell
and nut will roll. This tendency to roll is very
important in the design of hoppers.1000 unit mass of
bitter kola nut ranged from 3087.02 to 4200.35 g and
3112.74 to 4105.16 g for bitter kola shell. The
corresponding values reported for japtropha seed and
kernel, arigo seed, simarouba fruit and kernel, maize,
red gram, wheat, green gram, chickpea, faba bean,
pigeon pea were 1322.41, 688, 1124.7(111.3),
1120(52.54), 330.26(29.35), 268.30(0.002),
102(0.06), 346 g, 30.15 g, 120 g and 75 g
respectively (Dash et al., 2008; Dulta et al., 1998;
Shephered and Bhardwaj, 1986; Tabatabaeefar, 2003).
Table 2 showed the result of true and bulk densities,
porosity, angle of repose and coefficient of friction
bitter kola nut and shell. It was observed that mean
porosity bitter kola nut and shell corresponded to
35.60%, 0.97 and 40.70%, 1.21. The corresponding
values of simarouba fruit and kernel were 33.2 2.03
and 28.6% 2.9. Burubai et al. (2007) reported
porosity of 41% 4.2 for nutmeg. The values obtained
for porosity is solely dependent on the true and bulk
density. This can be furthered explained from
obtained result that air circulation through the
products will be more pronounced in bitter kola nut
compared to bitter kola shell. The result of true and
bulk densities, angle of repose and coefficient of
friction for bitter kola seed and shell were presented in
Table 2. The mean values for true and bulk densities
bitter kola seed and shell were 946.5324.09,
873.6143.17, 609.506.32 and 6214.20 kgm
-3
. The
corresponding values for true and bulk densities for
nutmeg and simarouba fruit and kernel were 836.54,
488.76, 622.27 and 727.27 kgm
-3
. The true and bulk
densities values of melon seeds, nutmeg and
simarouba were significantly difference at 0.05
probability level (Burubai et al., 2007). Palm fruit and
kernel had the bulk density 0.64g/m
3
and0.71g/m
3

(Davies, 2012).The corresponding values as reported
by Owolarafe et al. (2007) for true density, bulk
density and porosity of fresh dura were 1112.50kg/m
3

and 995.70kg/m
3
respectively. The coefficient of
static friction on the tested surfaces namely: glass,
plywood and galvanized iron sheet and rubber sheet
revealed significant difference at 0.05 probability
level. Bitter kola seed and shell on the fibreglass
surface had the lowest coefficient of static friction
compared to other tested surfaces. However,
coefficient of static friction for bitter kola nut was
found to be the higher than bitter kola shell. Bitter
kola nut and shell experienced highest static
coefficient of friction on rubber surface.
Tabatabaeefar (2007) observed similar trend in the
static coefficient of friction of wheat. He recorded
lowest static coefficient of friction on glass surface,
followed by galvanized iron sheet and lastly plywood.
The mean angle of repose for bitter kola nut and shell
were 33.7and 21.9.The corresponding angle of
repose for simarouba fruit and kernel is lower than
jatropha seed and kernel. While pistachio nut and
kernel were less than bitter kola nut and shell
(Sirissonmboon et al., 2007; Galedar et al., 2008).
The mean fracture force required to rupture the
bitter kola nut and shell on horizontal position were
2953.76 and 210.19 N. The mean fracture force
required to break the bitter kola nut and shell vertical
position were 321.610.49 and 24.01.05 N. The
average force required to break the dura and tenera
palm kernel according to Owolarafe et al. (2007) were
2301N and 1149N.


Davies and Mohammed
Engineering Properties of Bitter Kola Nuts and Shell As Potentials for Development Processing Machines
340
Table 1: Physical properties of bitter kola nut and shell
Properties Sample no Bitter kola nut Bitter kola shell
Maximum Minimum Mean Maximum Minimum Mean
Length (mm) 100 26.51 17.20 21.90 32.66 22.56 24.13
Width (mm) 100 14.73 9.43 11.65 16.31 12.09 12.96
Thickness(m
m)
100 13.73 10.50 12.07 22.10 17.74 19.10
Arithmetic
mean
diameter
(mm)
100 18.15 12.38 15.21 23.69 17.46 22.03
Geometric
mean
diameter(mm
)
100 17.28 11.94 14.55 22.75 16.91 18.14
Sphericity(%) 100 65 69 68 69 74 75
1000-unt
mass (g)
50 4200.35 3087.02 3252.61 4350.16 3112.74 3305.27
Surface
area(mm
2
)
100 938.2 447.9 665.2 1626.2 898.4 1033.9
Volume
(mm
3
)
100 2701.28 891.83 1612.62 6164.78 2533.81 3127.88
Aspect ratio
(%)
100 55.56 54.83 53.19 49.94 53.59 53.7

Table 2: Gravimetric and frictional properties bitter kola fruit and nut at moisture at 8.3% dry basis
Properties Bitter kola fruit Mean (S.E.M) Bitter kola shell Mean (S.E.M)
True density (kgcm
-3
) 946.5324.09 873.6143.17b
Bulk density (kgm
-3
) 690.506.23 6214.20
Porosity (%) 35.600.97 40.701.21
Angle of repose() 33.50.07 21.90.04
Fibreglass 0.350.02 0.290.02
Galvanised iron sheet 0.460.01 0.330.01
Plywood sheet 0.510.02 0.390.07
Rubber sheet 0.530.02 0.430.03
F
x
Vertical fracture force (N) 1953.76 210.19
F
y
Horizontal fracture force
(kN)
321.610.49 34.01.05
S.E.M- Standard error of means.

4. CONCLUSION

The following conclusions are drawn from the
investigation on the some engineering properties of
bitter kola nut and shell at moisture content of 6.33%
and 5.21% dry basis respectively:
(1) The physical properties of bitter kola nut and
shell such as mean length, width, thickness, arithmetic
and geometric mean diameter, sphericity, surface area,
1000unit mass and aspect ratio were investigated; (2)
The mean porosity, true and bulk densities, angle of
repose was investigated for the bitter kola nut and
shell. The obtained results were 35.60, 40.70, 946.53,
873.61, 690.50, 621 kg/m
3
kg/m
3
and 29.3-36,
respectively; (3) The coefficient of static friction of
bitter kola nut and shell was determined for four
different surfaces namely, fibreglass, plywood,
galvanized iron sheet and rubber. The highest
coefficient of static friction for bitter kola nut and
shell corresponds to rubber surface.


REFERENCES

Aviara NA, Gwandzung MI, Hague MAM (1999).
Physical properties of guna seeds. Journal of
Agricultural Engineering Research, 73: 105-
111.
Aviara NA, Oluwole FA, Haque MA (2005). Effect of
moisture content on some physical properties of
sheanut. Int. Agrophysics, 19: 193-198.
Aydin C (2003). Physical properties of almond nut
and kernel. J. Food Eng., 60: 315-320.
Bal S, Mishra HN (1988). Engineering properties of
soybean.Proc. Nat. Sem. Soybean Processing
and utilization in India, Bhopal, Madhya
Pradesh, India, Nov. 22-23, pp 146-165.
Bart-Plange A, Baryeh EA (2003). The Physical
properties of category B cocoa beans. Journal
of Food Engineering, 60: 219-227.
Baryeh AE, Mangope BK (2003). Some physical
properties of Qp 38 variety of pigeon pea.
Journal of Food Engineering, 56(1): 59-65.
International Journal of Scientific Research in Environmental Sciences (IJSRES), 1 (11), pp. 337-343, 2013
341
Burubai W, Akor A J, Igoni AH, Puyate YT (2007).
Some physical properties of nutmeg. Int.
Agrophysics, 21: 123-126.
Dash AK, Pradhan RC, Das IM, Naik SN (2008).
Some physical properties of simabouba fruit
and kernel. Int. Agrophysics, 22:111-116.
Davies RM, EI-Okene AMI (2009). Moisture-
dependent physical properties of soybean. Int.
Agrophysics 23(3):299-303.
Davies RM (2009). Some physical properties of
groundnut grains. Research Journal of Applied
Sciences, Engineering and Technology, 1(2):
10-13
Davies RM (2011). Some physical properties arigo
seeds. Int. Agrophysics, 24(1): 89- 92.
Davies RM, Zibokere S (2011). Effects of moisture
content on some physical and mechanical
properties of three varieties of cowpea (vigna
unguiculata (L) walp). Agric Eng Int: CIGR
Journal.
Davies RM, Zibokere DS (2011). Some physical
properties of gbafilo (Chrysobalanus icaco)
fruits and kernels preparatory to primary
processing. International Journal of Agricultural
Research, 6: 848-855.
Dutta SK, Nema VK, Bhardwaj RK (1988). Physical
properties of gram. Journal of Agricultural
Engineering Research, 39: 259-268.
El-Sayed AS, Yahaya R, Wacker P, Kutzbach HD
(2001). Characteristic attributes of the peanut
(Arachis hypogaea L.) for its separation. Int.
Agrophysics, 15: 225-230.
Fraser BM, Verma SS, Muir WE (1978). Some
physical properties of faba beans. J. Agric. Eng.
Res., 23: 53-57.
Galedar MN, Jafari A, Tabatabaeefa A (2008). Some
physical properties of wild pistachio nut and
kernel as a function of moisture content.
Journal of Physics and Environmental and
Agricultural Sciences, 22: 117-124.
Garnayak DK, Pradhan RC, Nalk SN, Bhatnagar N
(2008). Moisture- dependent physical properties
of jatropha seed. Industrial Crops Products, 27:
127-129.
Joshi DC, Das SK, Mukherejee RK (1993). Physical
properties of Pumpkin seeds. Journal of
Agricultural Engineering Research, 54: 219-
229.
Kaleemullah S, Gunasekar JJ (2002). Moisture
dependent physical properties of arecanut
kernels. BiosystemEnginering, 52: 331-338.
Karababa E (2006). Physical properties of popcorn
kernel. Journal of Food Engineering, 72: 100-
107.
Koocheki A, Razavi SMA, Milani E, Moghadan TM,
Abedini M, Alamatiyan S, Izadikhah S (2007).
Physical properties of watermelon seed as a
function of moisture content and variety. Int.
Agrophysics, 21: 349-359.
Maduako JN, Faborode MO (1990). Some physical
properties of cocoa pods in relation to primary
processing. Ife J. Technol., 2: 1-7.
Makanjuola GA (1978). A study of some of the
physical properties of melon seeds. Journal of
Agricultural Engineering Research, 17: 128-
137.
Manuwa SI, Afuye GG (2004). Moisture dependent
physical properties of soyabean (Var-TGx
1871-5E). Nigeria Journal of Industrial and
Studies, 3(2): 45-54.
McCabe WL, Smith JC, Harriot P (1986). Unit
Operations of Chemical Engineering. New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Milani E, Razavi SMA, Koocheki A, Nikzadeh V,
Vahedi N, MoeinFord M, Gholamhossein Pour
A (2007). Moisture dependent physical
properties of cucurbit seeds. Int. Agrophysics,
21:157- 168.
Mohsenin NN (1980). Physical properties of plant and
animal materials. Gordon and Breach Science
Publishers, New York.
Odigbo EA (1977). A spinning disc melon seeds
shelling machine. Development, design and
prototype construction NIJO Tech.
Oloko SA, Agbetoye LAS (2006). Development and
Performance Evaluation of a Melon Depodding
Machine. Agricultural Engineering Int. The
CIGR Ejournal. Manscript PM 06018 Vol.
V11.
Ogunjimi LAO, Aviara NA, Aregbesola OA (2002).
Some physical engineering properties of locust
bean seed. Journal of Food Engineering, 55: 95-
99.
Pradhan RC, Naik SN, Bhatnagar N, Swain SK
(2008). Moisture-dependent physical properties
of karanja (Pongamiapinnata) kernel. Industrial
Crops and Products (in press).
Razari MA, Emadzadeh B, Rafe A, Mohammed AA
(2007). The physical properties of pistachio nut
and its kernel as a function of moisture content
and variety, part 1 Geometric properties.
Journal of Food Engineering, 81: 209-217.
Sessiz RE, Esgile O, Kizls A (2005). Moisture-
dependent physical properties of caper
(capparis) fruit. Journal of Food Engineering,
79: 1426-1431
Shepherd H, Bhardwaj RK (1986). Moisture
dependent Physical properties of pigeon pea.
Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research,
35: 227-234.
Sirisomboon P, Kitchaiya P, Pholpho T, Mahuttanyara
W (2007). Physical and mechanical properties
Davies and Mohammed
Engineering Properties of Bitter Kola Nuts and Shell As Potentials for Development Processing Machines
342
of jatropha fruit, nuts and kernels. Biosystem
Engineering, 97(2): 201-207.
Tabatabaeefa A (2003). Moisture-dependent physical
properties of wheat. Int. Agrophysics, 12: 207-
211.
International Journal of Scientific Research in Environmental Sciences (IJSRES), 1 (11), pp. 337-343, 2013
343
Dr. Rotimi Davies is a lecturer in the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering,
Niger Delta University (NDU), Wilberforce Island, Amassoma, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. He is a certified
Engineer, a registered member of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).
Dr. Rotimi Davies bagged his B.Sc. (Hons) and masters degrees in Agricultural Engineering from the
premier University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. He later obtained his doctorate degree in Agricultural
Engineering from the renowned Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. His
areas of specialization are Bio-energy, Crop Processing and Storage Engineering. Dr. Rotimi Davies is
a dynamic and an outstanding Engineer who has published many research articles in international
journals. Dr. Rotimi Davies had held quite a number of administrative positions but presently, he is the
Staff and Undergraduate Students Seminars and Projects Coordinator of the Department of
Agricultural and Environmental Engineering at NDU.









Dr. Usman Shehu Mohammed is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural
Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. He is a certified
Engineer, a registered member of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).
He obtained his first, masters and doctorate degrees in Agricultural Engineering from the prestigious
ABU in 1984, 1999 and 2001 respectively. Dr. Mohammed specializes on Farm Power and Machinery.
He is an astute lecturer and researcher who has published numerous referred articles in local and
international journals. His hobbies are basketball, squash and athletics. Dr. Mohammed had held
several administrative positions at ABU but presently, he is the Departmental Postgraduate Coordinator
of Agricultural Engineering.