Congratulations Alexander Nyarko

Alexander Nyarko is a graduating MPhil student from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi. 

His research interests include biofuel and bioenergy, modelling, simulation and optimisation processes, and environmental and sustainability. His master’s thesis focused on "High-Temperature Pyrolysis of Waste Cocoa Pod Husk for Bio-oil Production with insights into the product distribution analysis, process simulations, thermodynamic studies and Techno-Economic Evaluations" under the supervision of Ing. Prof. Nana Yaw Asiedu, Dr Jude Bonsu and Ms Mary Mensah. 

Alexander performed a Pyrolysis experiment with waste Cocoa Pod Husk (CPH) as his biomass source. CPH was pretreated by sun drying, crushed for characterisation studies and Pyrolysed for product distribution analysis. FTIR and GCMS tests were performed on the Bio-oil produced. This revealed several functional groups and speciality Chemical compounds such as Catechol, fluoro atropine, Phenols and methoxy phenolics, furans, isonicotinic acid, aspidiospermidin compounds and many more. These green platform chemicals could be used in cosmetics, pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries, flavour and fragrance, and polymer-producing industries. Process Simulations, thermodynamics studies and techno-economic evaluations showed how economically feasible and energy efficient the Pyrolysis process plant was after the studies. 

He expresses his sincere and wholesome gratitude and appreciation to the KNUST Engineering Education Project (KEEP) for immensely supporting his work. He also acknowledges the involvement and concern of the staff and management in every aspect of his well-being and state.

He aspires to further studies in more renewable energy alternatives and the use of machine learning models for better predictive analysis on optimum process parameters for effective Pyrolysis on biomass feedstocks.