p- 1

p- 12

p- 16

p- 22

p- 25

p- 34
 Biodiesel Production by the Process Intensification of Reaction and Distillation (Reactive Distillation)

Biodiesel Production By The process Intensification of Reaction

and Distillation (Reactive Distillation) from Non-edible
Indigenous Plants
Abebaw Eshetie1, Samuel Tenaw2

1
School of Chemical & Food Engineering Bahir Dar University Bahir Dar, 1483, Ethiopia, abebawe@bdu.edu.et
2
School of Chemical & Food Engineering Bahir Dar University Bahir Dar, 1483, Ethiopia, samueltenaw@gmail.com

Abstract A comprehensive study of biodiesel production from Jatropha caracus oil was performed
on a continuous flow reactive distillation. Three process variables with three levels was studied
experimentally and analyzed statistically on the overall performance of reactive distillation unit. These
variables include reaction temperature of 40oC, 50 oC and 60 oC, a methanol to oil molar ratio of 4:1,
6:1 and 8:1 and an amount of catalyst 1%, 1.5% and 2% of the oil was taken. With a full factorial
design application 27 experiments was conducted. The yield, kinematic viscosity, iodine value, acid
value, higher heating value and cetane number of the fatty acid methyl ester(FAME) was analyzed
thoroughly. A highest yield of 99.07% and a lowest kinematic viscosity of 3.00mm2/s was found at a
temperature of 60oC, methanol to oil molar ratio of 8:1 and an amount of 1.5% catalyst.
Keywords- Biodiesel, Reactive Distillation.

1. INTRODUCTION consists of a sequence of three consecutive reversible

The result of modern civilization of human being is better
quality of life, longer life expectancy, more leisure time,
rapid transportation, healthier food, comfortable homes,
better clothing etc. The major reason behind this has been
cheap energy sources and cheap raw materials[1].
However, the era of cheap energy sources is definitely
over because of the demand continues to increase while
the supply remains limited[1-2].
This is due to the ever increasing of infrastructure, the
continuous development of nations, the population
growth and depletion of fossil fuels[2]. To Mitigate this
problem, in the last few decades there have been
milestone researches on renewable energy sources.
Especially Ethiopia as a country has made many new
policies on green economy.
One of the renewable energy sources which is considered
as a future prospect for the transportation sector is
vegetable oil. But the high viscosity of vegetable oils is
an obstacle to use vegetable oils directly in motor
engines[3]. Four methods to reduce the high viscosity of
vegetable oils to enable their use in common diesel
engines without operational problems such as engine
deposits have been investigated: blending with petro
diesel, pyrolysis, micro emulsification (co solvent
blending), and trans esterification. Among these, trans
esterification is by far the most common method of
decreasing the viscosity. Only the trans esterification
reaction leads to the products commonly known as
biodiesel[4]. Biodiesel which is called monoalkyl esters
of long chain fatty acid is derived from a renewable lipid
feed stock, such as vegetable oil or animal fat by trans
esterification reaction[5].
Trans esterification is a chemical reaction between
triglyceride and alcohol in the presence of a catalyst. It
reactions where triglycerides are converted to
diglycerides; diglycerides are converted to
monoglycerides followed by the conversion of
monoglycerides to glycerol. In each step an ester is
produced and thus three ester molecules are produced
from one molecule of triglyceride. It also gives glycerol
as a by-product which has a commercial value[4, 6]
Stoichiometrically, three moles of alcohol are required
for each mole of triglyceride, but in general, a higher
molar ratio is often employed for maximum ester
production depending upon the type of feedstock, amount
of catalyst, temperature, etc. Commonly used alcohols
include methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol.
However, the yield of biodiesel is independent of the type
of the alcohol used and the selection of one of these
depends on cost and performance. Methanol is preferred
over others due to its low cost[7].
The course of trans esterification is mainly affected by
the type of catalyst (alkaline, acid or enzyme), oil to
methanol molar ratio, reaction temperature; reaction time
and impurity contents (usually free fatty acids and water).
Among these issues, the determination of catalyst is the
first step for designing a trans esterification system[8].
The conventional catalysts used are acid and alkali
catalysts depending upon the nature of the oil used for
biodiesel production[9].
Generally most of the trans esterification reaction is done
with base catalyzed reaction because of its high amount
of yield with minimal side reactions, the ability to operate
at lower temperatures, the direct conversion without
intermediate products and its low cost of construction
materials[10-11]. But if the fatty acid content of the oil is

BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1 1

 Biodiesel Production by the Process Intensification of Reaction and Distillation (Reactive Distillation)
higher, the acid catalyzed trans esterification reaction is
used to prevent soap formation[9].
Compared to fossil-based diesel fuel, biodiesel possesses
many advantages such as cleaner engine emissions,
biodegradable, renewable and superior lubricating
property[12]. In spite of its many advantages, biodiesel is
not yet commercialized across the world the major
problem being the raw material cost. The cost of
biodiesel obtained from edible vegetable oils is greater
than the cost of petrodiesel.
Using non-edible feed stocks such as Jatropha curcas,
castor seed and algae plants are the best solution to make
biodiesel economically feasible. Jatropha curcas is a non-
edible oil-bearing and drought resistant plant which
grows in a wide range of altitude is found to be the most
appropriate renewable alternative source of biodiesel.
Besides the raw material cost, the technology used in
trans esterification reaction has a huge contribution to the
economic feasibility of biodiesel to use as an alternative
fuel. The conventional processing technology needs high
amount of methanol to oil ratio and extra separation
cost[13]. Generally the highest cost of biodiesel is the
raw material cost and the production cost which needs an
attention to make it economically viable.
The production cost can be decreased enormously by
using process intensification of reaction and separation in
a single equipment is called reactive distillation[14]. The
intensification of processes in single equipment hugely
decreases, the capital cost, the operating cost and energy
cost[15]. Whenever there is a chemical reaction, it is
mandatory to have separation, as there is no 100%
conversion of reactants to products in any chemical
reaction[16].
1
Distillate
Rectifying section
B reactants being the intermediate boiling components[18].
Reaction zone
A bottom point of the reaction zone and, the heavier
Striping section
REBOILER
Figure 1 Flow sheet of ideal reactive distillation column
2 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
Reactive distillation(RD) enhance reaction rate, reduce
molar ratio of alcohol to oil and energy input by
intensification of mass transfer and heat transfer and in
situ product separation, thus achieve continuous product
in a scalable unit[17]. In reactive distillation, the heat
released during trans esterification reaction is used as a
heat source to boil unreacted methanol. This technique is
especially used for equilibrium-limited reactions such as
trans esterification reaction. Conversion can be increase
far beyond what is expected by the equilibrium due to the
continuous removal of reaction products from the
reaction zone[13].
In an ideal reactive distillation system having two
reactants (A and B) and two products(C and D), the two
products must be lighter and/or heavier than the two
reactants[1, 18].
A+B C+D
A, B
Reaction Separation
A, B C+D
Figure 2 A Conventional process scheme for reversible reactions in
which the conversion is limited by the chemical equilibrium
C
A, B D
Reaction, Separation
Figure 3 An ideal reactive distillation process scheme
For reactive distillation to work, products should be
removed from the reaction zone by distillation. This
implies that the products should be lighter and/or heavier
than the reactants. In terms of the relative volatilities of
the four components, an ideal case is when one product is
the lightest and the other product is the heaviest, with the
In terms of relative volatility, the reactants and products
should have the following order
C ABD
As shown in figure 2 the lightest reactant A, enters at the
reactant B, enters at the top of the reaction zone. As the
lighter reactant rises up and the heavier reactant goes
down in the reaction zone, the two components will
contact and will react to produce C and D. since one of
the products is the lights product, it is continuously
removed from the reaction zone as top product and the
heavier product as bottom product. This process allows
increasing the conversion by removing the products and
favoring the reaction to the product side[1]. Especially in
biodiesel production application the heat released by the
 Biodiesel Production by the Process Intensification of Reaction and Distillation (Reactive Distillation)
reaction is used to distillate the lightest component which
reduces external energy consumption.
2. MATERIALS AND METHOD
2.1. Materials and Chemicals
Purified jatropha oil was brought from Organization for
Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara (ORDA).
All chemicals used in this study were Analytical grade
chemicals; analytical grade methanol (99.8%) and NaOH
were used as reactant and catalyst respectively. Toluene
(99%), Phenolphthalein, diethyl-ether, sulfuric acid,
ethanol, iodine, bromine liquid, sodium thiosulphate,
potassium iodide, glacial acetic acid, chloroform,
hydrochloric acid and distilled water were used for raw
material and biodiesel characterization.
A pilot scale reactive distillation (RD) column with
length 1.25m, internal diameter of 10cm and 4 mm
thickness constructed from stainless steel was used. The
trays are sieve trays with thickness of 1 mm. The
.
METHANOL
RD
METHOXID
MIXER P1 2
3 DECANTOR
OIL
Figure 4 Equipment set up of reactive distillation
In this transesterification reaction, there are three factors;
methanol to oil ratio, temperature and catalyst. All the
three factors have three labels being 4:1, 6:1 and 8:1 for
methanol labels, 40, 50 and 60 for temperature labels and
1%, 1.5% and 2% of catalysts labels. Applying a factorial
design, three factors with three labels a total of 33(27
experiments were conducted.
2.3. Transesterification Reaction
In the separate feed tank, methanol and catalyst was
mixed with magnetic stirrer. The amount of catalyst was
1%, 1.5% and 2% of the feed oil. The methanol feed tank
was tightly closed to prevent evaporation of methanol
and the oil feed tank was tightly closed because oil has
hygroscopic property and if it is open, it absorb water
from the humidified atmosphere.
The general transesterification reaction for base-catalyzed
conversion of vegetable oils consisting primarily of
neutral triacylglycerols (TAG) in reaction with alcohols
to form alkyl esters. The transesterification reaction
started in the feed tank which serves as a pre-reactor. The
reaction temperatures were at 40 oC, 50 oC and 60. The
methanol to oil ratio was 4:1 6:1 and 8:1.
BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
numbers of trays are 10 with five in the reaction zone two
trays in the striping section and three trays in the
rectifying section. The RD was insulated to prevent heat
loss from the system and it was equipped with
thermocouple, stove for boil up and condenser for the top
product was installed with the reactive distillation.
2.2. Experiment Setup and Description
A pilot scale reactive distillation equipped with peristaltic
pump to feed the reactants to the column, reflux
condenser to condense to top product, chiller to condense
the distillate, thermocouple to measure the temperature
inside the columns, heating stove to heat the boilup was
used for the trans esterification reaction. In addition,
there was a pre-reactor apparatus which serve as a mixing
and pre-reacting device. Two feed tanks were also used
for the two reactants. One of the two feed tank which
used for the methanol was fitted with stirrer to mix the
catalyst and methanol.
P2 BDIESEL
7 6
Stoichiometrically 3 moles of alcohols are required for
one mole of triglyceride. But excess amount of alcohols
are required for maximum ester production depending on
the type of feedstock, amount of catalyst, temperature
and processing technology. In addition to this
transesterification reaction is a liquid phase reversible
reaction which can be strongly affected by the excess
reactant[19].
The transesterification reaction was held at temperatures
of 40 oC, 50 oC and 60 oC. Transesterification reaction is
highly dependent on temperature. But the maximum
reaction temperature must not be greater than the boiling
point of methanol. Because transesterification reaction is
a liquid phase reaction and if the temperature increases
more the boiling point of alcohol, reaction will not take
place[20].
The reactants stored in different feed tanks were fed
through separate pre-calibrated peristaltic pumps into the
column with the methanol-to-oil molar ratios 4, 6 and 8.
These various ratios were achieved by adjusting the
alcohol/catalyst flow rate relative to the flow rate of the
oil. The feed position was exactly at the top of the
3
 Biodiesel Production by the Process Intensification of Reaction and Distillation (Reactive Distillation)

reactive tray. Starting from this the system was totally

closed to prevent the loss of alcohol.
In the pre-reactor, a hot plate magnetic stirrer was used to
mix and agitate the jatropha oil and the methoxide
mixture. When the system was ready for the
transesterification reaction, all the pumps and the chiller
started working

Figure 5 Pilot Plant Reactive Distillation column

.
The methanol which was recovered as a top product was
recycled back to the feed tank to increase the
methanol/oil ration. The bottom product which is a
mixture of biodiesel and glycerol was sent to a decantor.
In the decantor, the biodiesel and the glycerol was
Figure 6. Reactive Distillation Column after installation
separated by density difference. The biodiesel was
washed several times to remove the remaining glycerol in
the methyl ester. When the methyl ester became clear, it 2.4. Biodiesel Characterization
was heated to 70C remove the remaining methanol, even Finally the produced methyl ester was characterized
though the reactive distillation separates as a distillate using international standards of ASTM and EN.
there may be trace amount of methanol remaining in the The final product was weighed for determination of
biodiesel. product yield and then it was characterized. The yield of
biodiesel (FAME) was estimate by taking the ratio of
total methyl ester produced and the initial amount of flesh
oil used[21]. Therefore the yield of transesterification
reaction was calculated according to equation (1).

Yield (%) = x100

(1)
Biodiesel Characterization

4 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

 Biodiesel Production by the Process Intensification of Reaction and Distillation (Reactive Distillation)
Density (ASTM D4052-91):-the biodiesel at a
temperature of 25 was filled in to graduated cylinder
of 50ml. hydrometer was used to measure the
specific gravity of the biodiesel at 298k according to
ASTM D5002-94.
Determination of Kinematic Viscosity (ASTM D
445):-Vibro viscometer was (SV10) used to
measure the kinematic viscosity of the samples. The
sample is filled in to a container and set on the table
along guides and inserted in the water bath. Raise
the level to release sensor plates, pinch the grips and
gently lower the level to secure Sensor plates. The
bath is heated to a temperature of 313k. It will reach
equilibrium after 30min. Then the reading from the
digital display was taken and recorded.
Figure 7. SV10 vibro viscometer apparatus
Saponification value (AOCS CD3 1993):-the
saponification value (SV) of the biodiesel sample
was determined by the following method. 0.5M of
KOH was prepared by dissolving 14 gram of
analytical grade KOH in 500 ml of ethanol. Then, 1
gram of biodiesel sample was mixed with 25ml of
0.5M KOH. Then 4ml of 50-50 by volume ethanol-
ether was prepared. This mixture was refluxed for
30minutes using hot plate magnetic stirrer. After
cooling, 3 drops of phenolphthalein to the mixture
was added. This mixture was titrated against 0.5M
of HCl with an amount of Va until the faint pink
color disappears permanently. The back titration
was also performed using the same procedure to
the above except only absence of Biodiesel
sample, and then the consumed volume by
blank solution was recorded as Vb. Finally the
Saponification value of Biodiesel was calculated by
using
BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
( )
SV=56.1 (2)
Where:
Va - Volume of hydrochloric acid consumed by
sample [ml]
Vb - Volume of hydrochloric acid consumed by
blank [ml]
M - Concentration of hydrochloric acid [M]
Ws - Weight of Biodiesel sample [gm]
Iodine Value (IV): -it is the amount of iodine
absorbed in grams per 100ml of sample. Iodine
value is useful for determination of the overall
degree of saturation of the oil, which is important
for viscosity, cloud point and reactivity
characteristics of the fuel. At lower temperature, if
the oil is saturated it becomes solid, but if it has
higher degree of unsaturation it remains liquid[22].
0.1N sodium thiosulphate solution was prepared by
dissolving 24.8 gm sodium thiosulphate with 100 ml
distilled water in 1000 ml flask and it was diluted to
1 liter by adding distilled water. 10 % Potassium
iodide solution was prepared by dissolving of 10 gm
potassium iodide in 100 ml distilled water. 1 %
Starch solution was prepared by dissolving of 2 gm
starch in 20 ml distilled water. Hanus solution was
prepared by dissolving 13.6 gm iodine in 400 ml
glacial acetic acid followed by addition of 6 ml
bromine solution. Then 15% potassium iodide
solution was prepared by dissolving of 15 gm
potassium iodide in 100 ml distilled water. Then 1
gram of biodiesel was dissolved in 10ml chloroform
following by adding of 25ml hanus solution and
allowed to stay for 30 minute in dark place. Then 10
ml of 15% potassium iodide solution was added and
the mixture was titrated against 0.1N standardized
sodium thiosulphate until yellow solution turns in to
colorless and the volume of titrant was recorded Vt.
Then blank titration was performed through the
same procedure then volume of titrant or sodium
thiosulphate solution consumed by the blank
solution was recorded as Vb.
1 ( )
IV = (3)
Where
Vt=volume of sodium thiosulphate used in the
sample (ml).
Vb=volume of sodium thiosulphate used in the
blank titration (ml).
5
 Biodiesel Production by the Process Intensification of Reaction and Distillation (Reactive Distillation)
Ct - Concentration of standardized sodium
thiosulphate [N]
MI = molar mass of iodine, Ws = mass of biodiesel
sample (g).
Higher heating value (HHV):- higher heating value
was determined by the following empirical
formula[23].
HHV = 49.43-0.041(SV)-0.015(IV). (4)
Cetane number CN(ASTM D613):- was determined
by an empirical formula by kalayasiri[21, 23]. The
Cetane number calculated by this formula depends
on SV and IV of the biodiesel.
CN = 46.3 +
5458
-0.225xIV (5)
number, density, higher heating value and
3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Characterization of the Jatropha Oil
The yield and quality of biodiesel depends on the
quality of oil used in the feed stock. Besides catalyst
type used in the transesterification reaction depends
on the free fatty acid content of the oil. Therefore
the physico-chemical property of the jatropha oil
was characterized using different analytical
chemistry techniques before transesterification
reaction took place. Iodine value (IV),
saponification value (SV), acid value, density,
kinematic viscosity and higher heating vales were
tested.
Iodine value and saponification of jatropha oil from
literature ranges from 69.82 to 156.74 and from
188.71 to 220.78, respectively. The measured values
of the IV and SV were 73g/100g and 195mg
KOH/gm respectively. Therefore these values are in
agreement with the literature value.
Acid value, kinematic viscosity, HHV and density
are all in agreement with the standard value. But the
flash point which shows the degree of stability is
lower than the literature value. This value is less
than by 1% compared with the standard value. This
may be due to the measurement error the fact that
the open cup method is less precise when compared
to the standard flash point determination technique
(Pensky-Martens closed cup method). But this value
doesnt have a significant effect on the degree of
stability of the oil for this study as the error is in a
tolerable range.
The acid value is a measure of the amount of
carboxylic acid groups in a chemical compound
such as oil or biodiesel. The acid number is used to
6 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
quantify the amount of acid present, for example in
a sample of biodiesel. It is the quantity of base,
expressed in milligrams of potassium hydroxide that
is required to neutralize the acidic constituents in 1
g of sample[24]. The acid value of the jatropha oil
used in this study is 11 mg KOH/g which is in
between the ranges of acid values of the jatropha oil
in the literature.
3.2. Transesterification Reaction
After accomplishing the transesterification reaction,
the effect of operating conditions on yield,
kinematic viscosity, acid value, iodine value, cetane
Saponification value were analyzed.
The yield of the biodiesel (FAME) was calculated
for experiments at by equation (1). The effect of the
operating conditions (temperature, amount of
catalyst and methanol/oil ratio) was analyzed
thoroughly. As it can be seen from the graphs, the
yield is highly dependent on temperature and
methanol/oil ratio. The yield FAME changes
significantly as the temperature changes from 40 to
50 and from 50 to 60 oC. As temperature increases,
the reaction rate also increases and this favors the
transesterification reaction towards the forward side.
But increasing the temperature beyond 60oC will not
increase the yield because, transesterification
reaction is a liquid phase reaction and if temperature
is increased beyond 60 oC the reactant methanol will
be in the gas phase and reaction will not take place.
This shows that the optimum operating temperature
is 60oC.
The yield of FAME also depends on methanol/oil
ratio. When the amount of excess reactant
(methanol) increases, the reaction favors towards
the forward side. In conventional transesterification
reaction, the methanol/oil ratio goes up to 30:1. But
in reactive distillation, the product is removed
continuously from the reaction zone. This allows
minimizing methanol/oil ration and in this study it is
found that 8:1 is the optimum methanol: oil ratio.
The amount of catalyst also affects the yield of
FAME. Increasing the amount of catalyst from 1 to
1.5% has significant change on the yield but
increasing beyond 1.5% decreases the yield. This
may be due to the initiation of Saponification
reaction at higher amount of catalyst. Generally it
was observed that a yield of 99.07% is obtained at a
 Biodiesel Production by the Process Intensification of Reaction and Distillation (Reactive Distillation)
temperature of 60oC, 1.5% catalyst and 8:1
methanol/oil ratio.
Fig 8. Temperature Vs Yield (4:1 Methano/Oil ratio)
Fig. 9 Temperature Vs Yield (6:1 Methanol/Oil ratio)
BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
Fig. 10 Temperature Vs Yield (8:1 Methanol/Oil ratio)
The need for transesterfification reaction is to
reduce the viscosity of plant oil, since these oils
cannot be used directly in engines due to their
highest viscosity. Therfore analyzing the viscosity
of the FAME was important. As it can be seen from
the graph, as the reaction temperature and
methanol/oil increases the viscosity of of the FAME
deacreases. This is because the increase in
temperature and methaol/oil ratio increases the yield
of the FAME. This agrees with the expected result.
On the other hand amount of catalyst doesnt
always decrease the viscosity of the FAME. The
lowest viscosity is obtained at 1.5% catalyst. In
generela the lowest viscosity of 3.00 was found at
temperature of 60oC, methanol/oil ratio of 8:1 and
1.5% catalyst.
Acid value affects storage ability of biodiesel.
Storage ability refers to the ability of the fuel to
resist chemical changes during long-term storage; it
is a major issue with biodiesel[25]. Contact with air
and water is the major factors affecting storage
stability. Oxidation is usually accompanied by an
increase in the acid value and viscosity of the fuel.
In the presence of water the ester can hydrolyze to
long-chain FFA, which also causes the acid value to
increase. This may cause the formation of deposits
or deterioration of the lubricating[26].
7
 Biodiesel Production by the Process Intensification of Reaction and Distillation (Reactive Distillation)

Fig. 11 Catalyst Vs Viscosity(4:1 mthanol/oil) Fig. 13 Catalyst Vs Viscosity(8:1 mthanol/oil)

The iodine value of methyl ester depends on the

type of parent oil, used during the
transesterification reaction[9, 12]. According to
the European Union draft standard, the
maximum limit of iodine value is 120mg/g and

Fig. 12 Catalyst Vs Viscosity(8:1 mthanol/oil)

8 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

 Biodiesel Production by the Process Intensification of Reaction and Distillation (Reactive Distillation)

Fuel properties of biodiesel:

Methanol Operating Kinematic IV AV HHV Cetane
Run to oil ratio Temperature Catalyst (%) Yield (%) Viscosity(mm2/s) g/100g mg KOH/g MJ/kg number
1 8:1 60oC 1.5 99.07 0.16A 3.00 0.01A 98.23 0.21 40.12 52.30
2 8:1 60oC 2.0 98.41 0.50 B
3.05 0.01A 99.60 0.23 40.10 51.70
3 8:1 60oC 1.0 98.05 0.37C 3.02 0.01A 99.80 0.22 40.00 51.20
4 6:1 60oC 1.5 97.69 0.32D 3.40 0.01B 100.7 0.25 40.12 51.80
5 8:1 50oC 1.5 97.49 0.25E 3.52 0.04C 101.3 0.27 39.83 49.50
6 8:1 50oC 2.0 97.32 0.34E 3.92 0.01D 101.6 0.26 39.90 49.10
7 6:1 60oC 1.0 97.23 0.26F 3.66 0.01E 101.9 0.25 39.92 48.90
8 6:1 60oC 2.0 97.16 0.31F 3.70 0.01F 102.1 0.21 39.86 49.12
9 6:1 50 1.5 96.73 1.10G 3.79 0.01G 101.7 0.30 40.12 52.24
10 6:1 50 2.0 96.43 0.33H 3.89 0.05H 101.5 0.25 39.95 52.29
11 8:1 50 1.0 96.31 0.32I 3.61 0.01H 102.7 0.34 39.88 53.61
12 4:1 60 1.5 95.98 1.12I 3.93 0.01H 103.6 0.26 40.05 51.82
13 4:1 60 1.0 94.83 0.39J 4.00 0.01I 103.9 0.28 40.22 51.75
14 6:1 50 1.0 94.75 0.22J 4.01 0.01I 104.7 0.35 40.11 51.57
J
15 4:1 60 2.0 94.39 0.50 4.03 0.01I 108.9 0.41 40.14 50.62
16 4:1 50 1.5 93.26 0.25K 4.21 0.01J 107.3 0.37 40.08 50.98
17 4:1 50 1.0 91.78 0.48L 4.30 0.01K 106.2 0.25 39.98 51.23
18 4:1 50 2.0 91.29 0.50L 4.32 0.02K 105.3 0.46 38.86 51.43
19 8:1 40 1.5 89.59 0.24M 4.60 0.20L 109.8 0.62 39.56 50.42
20 8:1 40 2.0 88.69 0.03N 4.91 0.01M 110.4 0.33 39.64 50.28
21 6:1 40 1.5 88.64 0.28N 5.01 0.02N 110.8 0.37 39.61 50.29
22 8:1 40 1.0 88.24 0.64O 5.41 0.01O 112.9 0.52 39.22 49.72
23 6:1 40 1.0 87.86 0.41O 5.40 0.00P 113.6 0.64 39.06 49.98
24 6:1 40 2.0 87.68 0.46Q 5.70 0.01Q 110.9 0.44 39.60 50.29
25 4:1 40 2.0 82.59 1.25R 6.03 0.01R 114.5 0.56 38.89 49.36
26 4:1 40 1.5 81.35 1.07S 5.81 0.01S 113.7 0.55 39.08 49.54
27 4:1 40 1.0 80.51 0.65T 6.01 0.01T 115.2 0.68 38.63 49.21

the measured iodine value in this study is between
101-113g of iodine per 100g of sample which is in
agreement with the literature value[9]. This value is
relatively higher. This is because biodiesel produced
from vegetable oils are highly unsaturated.
The acid value is a measure of the number of acidic
functional groups in a sample and is measured in
terms of the quantity of potassium hydroxide
required to neutralize the sample[27]. According to
the EN14214, the acid value for biodiesel should
0.5 mg KOH/g[28].
The acid value in this study is found in between
0.21 0.37 mg KOH/g which is in the limit of
ASTM and EN standard values. The acid value
decreases as the methanol to oil ration increases
The cetane number of biodiesel varies with storage
conditions and storage time. Also, storage of
biodiesel under ambient conditions resulted in
higher cetane number as a function of storage time.
This higher cetane number of aged biodiesel
samples may be due to the oxidative products[29].
In this study the cetane number is found to be
between 48.9-52.3, and according to ASTM
standard for biodiesel the minimum cetane number
is 47. Therefore it is an acceptable value
The literature value shows that higher heating value
of biodiesel (39 to 41 MJ/kg) is slightly lower than
that of diesel fuel[30]
4. CONCLUSION
To figure out the best optimal operating condition
for the production of biodiesel from jatropha oil by
reactive distillation, three parameters that affect the
production process has been studied. Several
experiments were performed for a wide range of
temperature, methanol/oil ratio and catalyst
concentration. In this study, a continuous reactive
distillation was used for the transesterification
reaction. Jatropha oil and methanol as a reactant and

BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1 9

 Biodiesel Production by the Process Intensification of Reaction and Distillation (Reactive Distillation)
analytical grade sodium hydroxide as catalyst was
used.
The physicochemical properties of the product was
analyzed using and found 99.07% of yield,
3.00mm2/s of kinematic viscosity, 40.12MJ/kg of
HHV, 52.30 of cetane number, 98.23g/100g of
iodine value and 0.21mg KOH/g of acid value at the
optimum operating conditions.
Summarizing, the yield of biodiesel can be
enhanced by using reactive distillation.
Acknowledgement
The research fund was granted from the research,
post graduate and community service of Bahir Dar
University
REFERENCE
1. Luyben, W.L. and C.-C. Yu, Reactive
distillation design and control. 2009: Wiley-
AIChE.
2. Scragg, A.H., Biofuels: production, application
and development. 2009: Cabi.
3. Pramanik, K., Properties and use of Jatropha
curcas oil and diesel fuel blends in compression
ignition engine. Renewable energy, 2003. 28(2):
p. 239-248.
4. Knothe, G., J.H. Van Gerpen, and J. Krahl, The
biodiesel handbook. Vol. 1. 2005: AOCS press
Champaign, IL.
5. Zhang, Y.a., et al., Biodiesel production from
waste cooking oil: 1. Process design and
technological assessment. Bioresource
technology, 2003. 89(1): p. 1-16.
6. Sharma, Y., B. Singh, and S. Upadhyay,
Advancements in development and
characterization of biodiesel: a review. Fuel,
2008. 87(12): p. 2355-2373.
7. Singh, S. and D. Singh, Biodiesel production
through the use of different sources and
characterization of oils and their esters as the
substitute of diesel: A review. Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2010. 14(1): p.
200-216.
8. Lee, D.-W., Y.-M. Park, and K.-Y. Lee,
Heterogeneous base catalysts for
transesterification in biodiesel synthesis.
Catalysis surveys from Asia, 2009. 13(2): p. 63-
77.
9. Vicente, G., M. Martnez, and J. Aracil,
Integrated biodiesel production: a comparison
of different homogeneous catalysts systems.
Bioresource technology, 2004. 92(3): p. 297-
305.
10. Janaun, J. and N. Ellis, Perspectives on biodiesel
as a sustainable fuel. Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2010. 14(4): p.
1312-1320.
11. Narasimharao, K., A. Lee, and K. Wilson,
Catalysts in production of biodiesel: a review.
10 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
Journal of biobased materials and bioenergy,
2007. 1(1): p. 19-30.
12. Issariyakul, T., et al., Production of biodiesel
from waste fryer grease using mixed
methanol/ethanol system. Fuel Processing
Technology, 2007. 88(5): p. 429-436.
13. Mueanmas, C., K. Prasertsit, and C. Tongurai,
Feasibility study of reactive distillation column
for transesterification of palm oils. Inter. J.
Chem. Eng. Appl., 2010. 1: p. 77-83.
14. Harmsen, G.J., Reactive distillation: The front-
runner of industrial process intensification: A
full review of commercial applications,
research, scale-up, design and operation.
Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process
Intensification, 2007. 46(9): p. 774-780.
15. Kiss, A.A., et al., Reactive DWC leading the
way to FAME and fortune. Fuel, 2012. 95: p.
352.
16. Gomez-Castro, F.I., et al., Feasibility study of a
thermally coupled reactive distillation process
for biodiesel production. Chemical Engineering
and Processing: Process Intensification, 2010.
49(3): p. 262-269.
17. Qiu, Z., L. Zhao, and L. Weatherley, Process
intensification technologies in continuous
biodiesel production. Chemical Engineering and
Processing: Process Intensification, 2010. 49(4):
p. 323-330.
18. Shinde, G., et al., Transesterification by
Reactive Distillation for Synthesis and
Characterization of Biodiesel.
19. Alsalme, A., E.F. Kozhevnikova, and I.V.
Kozhevnikov, Heteropoly acids as catalysts for
liquid-phase esterification and
transesterification. Applied Catalysis A:
General, 2008. 349(1): p. 170-176.
20. Rios, L.F., et al., Biodiesel Production by an
Integrated Reactive Separation System: A
Comparative Study. CHEMICAL
ENGINEERING, 2012. 26.
21. Getahun, E. and N. Gabiyye, Experimental
investigation and characterization of biodiesel
production from leather industry fleshing
wastes.
22. Knothe, G., Structure indices in FA chemistry.
How relevant is the iodine value? Journal of the
American Oil Chemists' Society, 2002. 79(9): p.
847-854.
23. Sokoto, M., et al., Influence of Fatty Acid
Methyl Esters on Fuel properties of Biodiesel
Produced from the Seeds Oil of Curcubita pepo.
Nigerian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences,
2011. 19(1).
24. Canakci, M. and J. Van Gerpen, Biodiesel
production from oils and fats with high free fatty
acids. Transactions-American Society of
Agricultural Engineers, 2001. 44(6): p. 1429-
1436.
25. Knothe, G., J. Krahl, and J.H. Van Gerpen, The
biodiesel handbook. Vol. 286. 2010: AOCS
press Champaign, IL.
 Biodiesel Production by the Process Intensification of Reaction and Distillation (Reactive Distillation)

26. Akbar, E., et al., Characteristic and composition
of Jatropha curcas oil seed from Malaysia and
its potential as biodiesel feedstock feedstock.
European Journal of Scientific Research, 2009.
29(3): p. 396-403.
27. Canakci, M., The potential of restaurant waste
lipids as biodiesel feedstocks. Bioresource
technology, 2007. 98(1): p. 183-190.
28. Dorado, M.P., et al., Optimization of Alkali-
Catalyzed Transesterification of Brassica C
arinata Oil for Biodiesel Production. Energy &
Fuels, 2004. 18(1): p. 77-83.
29. Freedman, B. and M. Bagby, Predicting cetane
numbers of n-alcohols and methyl esters from
their physical properties. Journal of the
American Oil Chemists Society, 1990. 67(9): p.
565-571.
30. Singh, R. and S.K. Padhi, Characterization of
Jatropha oil for the preparation of biodiesel.
Nat. product Radiance, 2009. 8(2): p. 127-132.

BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1 11

 Development and Evaluation of Low Cost Evaporative Coolers to Minimize Postharvest Losses of Tomatoes

Development and Evaluation of Low Cost Evaporative Coolers to

Minimize Postharvest Losses of Tomatoes (Roma vf). Around
Woreta, South Gondar of Ethiopia
Henock W. Michael1 and Biresaw Demelash2
1
School of Chemical and Food Engineering, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, 1789, Ethiopia, henymarbdr@gmail.com
2
School of Chemical and Food Engineering, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, 1866, Ethiopia, chembires@gmail.com

Abstract Low cost evaporative cooling systems, bamboo jute and pot in pot, were developed from
locally available materials and investigated for their cooling efficiency in improving the shelf life of
tomatoes around Wereta. The average cooling efficiencies of bamboo jute cooler and pot in pot cooler
before being loaded with tomatoes were 82% and 79% and after being loaded with tomatoes were
67.6% and 61.6%, respectively. Percentage weight losses were 1.03%, 1.32% and 1.42% for bamboo
jute, pot in pot coolers and control, respectively. The sensory results revealed that the shelf life of
tomatoes were 5, 19 and 21 days for the ambient (control), pot in pot and bamboo jute evaporative
coolers, respectively. Storage type has significant difference on cooling efficiency but has no
significant difference on physiological weight loss, physical damage, freshness and rot incidence at
P<0.05. Thus, both evaporative coolers were found to be economically feasible, energy efficient, user
friendly, environmentally sound and can be effectively used in areas where there is no electricity to
improve the shelf life of tomatoes.
Key words Cooling efficiency, evaporative cooling, shelf life, tomatoes.
develop and evaluate low cost evaporative cooling
I. INTRODUCTION systems from locally available materials that could be
utilized to improve the shelf life of tomatoes.
Fruits and vegetables are highly perishable commodities
that cannot be kept for long period of time due to their
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
perishable and seasonal nature. However, the perishable
nature of fruits and vegetables needs effective postharvest Experimental area
handling systems, the main reason for high postharvest
The experimental site, Fogera woreda, is located at
losses in developing countries.
1158 north and 3734 east. It covers 1174.14 km2,
Most of the postharvest losses incurred on fruits and
average rain fall 1284.2 ml with 1820 m above sea level.
vegetables in Ethiopia are due to lack of adequate storage
It has a population of 228,449 (2012 estimate) where
facilities. Low temperature handling and storage have
88.9% is a farmer. Woreta is located in this woreda and it
been described as the most important physical method for
has an average maximum temperature of 33C and an
postharvest loss control [6]. In developed countries,
average minimum temperature of 10C. For particular
methods employed for extending shelf life and
reasons of conducting the experiment, Dudmegn
minimizing postharvest losses of perishable produce
Elementary School was selected. The study period was
include mechanical refrigeration, controlled atmospheres,
from January to April, 2013.
hypobaric storage, and other sophisticated techniques.
These cooling methods, except adiabatic cooling, are
Evaporative cooling construction materials:
expensive for small scale peasant farmers, retailers and
Construction materials were collected based on porosity,
wholesalers, as they require high initial cost and electric
water absorption/evaporation rate of the material,
power. Low temperature and high relative humidity can
availability, cost and ease of construction. Based on these
be achieved by using less expensive methods such as
criteria, main construction materials such as sand, metal
evaporative cooling [5] and [6].
plate, bags, bamboo, jute, buckets, jug, ink, kerosene and
Evaporative cooling is an adiabatic cooling process
bricks were collected.
whereby the air takes in moisture which is cooled while
Method of construction of evaporative coolers:
passing through a wet pad or across a wet surface showed
The types of evaporative coolers selected were mainly
that evaporative cooled storage is more energy efficient
due to the low cost and availability of construction
than a mechanical refrigeration system [7]. Introduction
materials and simplicity of construction. In addition, it
of simple and low cost alternative storage methods at
was also to make available based on the interest of the
different stages starting from farm to the retail market are
users.
therefore important in developing countries.
Bamboo basket was constructed and covered with a jute
Compared with several temperate fruits and vegetables,
cloth. The jute cloth was sewed around the rim of the
tropical and subtropical vegetables such as tomatoes
basket. The lower end of the cloth was hanged loosely
present greater storage and transportation problems
around the bottom, exceeding the length dip into the
because of their perishable nature [4]. In Ethiopia
water during investigation of its efficiency. The basket
postharvest loses of vegetables is estimated from 25-40%
[1] and [2]. The present study is therefore planned to

12 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

Development and Evaluation of Low Cost Evaporative Coolers to Minimize Postharvest Losses of Tomatoes

was covered with loose-fitting woven lid. The lid was

also covered with jute cloth (Fig. 1. a).

Fig. 2. Daily cooling efficiency of both coolers during no

Fig. 1a) Bamboo jute cooler. b) Pot in pot cooler.
load test.
Load test
A porous outer earthenware pot and inner pot were
The average cooling efficiency when loaded with
constructed and lined with sand within which tomato will
tomatoes for bamboo jute and pot in pot coolers were
be stored (Fig. 1b).
67.6% and 61.6%, respectively (Fig. 3 and 4).
Data analysis:
Triplicate data were subjected to ANOVA using JMP
version 5 statistical software. Mean separations were
compared using Students t test at P < 0.05.

III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

In this study, two evaporative cooling systems were

developed and investigated for their cooling efficiency.
The performance of the coolers was also investigated in
improving the shelf life of tomatoes in terms of some
basic quality parameters such as physiological weight
loss and appearance (physical damage, freshness and rot
incidence).

A. Cooling Efficiency
No load test Fig. 3. Daily cooling efficiency of bamboo jute cooler
No load test was conducted after applying water on during load test for 21 days of storage.
the cooling chambers to study the performance of the
coolers before being loaded with tomatoes. The
temperature and relative humidity inside the chamber and
outside the chamber were recorded three times a day by
using Digital Thermo-Hygrometer, TFA
Dostmann/Wertheim, and Germany.

The cooling efficiency was calculated using the model

reported by [3]:

T1 ( db) T2 ( db) (1)

CE = 100
T1 ( db) T1 ( wb)
Where:
T1 (db) = dry-bulb outside temperature, C Fig. 4. Daily cooling efficiency of pot in pot cooler
T2 (db) = dry-bulb cooler temperature, C during load test for 19 days of storage.
T1 ( wb) = wet-bulb outside temperature, C

The average cooling efficiency of bamboo jute cooler and

pot in pot cooler during the no load test was 82% and
79%, respectively (Fig. 2).

BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1 13

 Development and Evaluation of Low Cost Evaporative Coolers to Minimize Postharvest Losses of Tomatoes

Fig. 5. Daily temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH)

of control (ambient) for 5 days of storage.
Fig. 6. Daily physiological weight losses of tomatoes
B. Quality of stored tomatoes stored in bamboo jute, pot in pot cooler and control.

The quality of the tomatoes was estimated in terms of

physiological weight, physical damage, freshness and rot
incidence.

Physiological weight loss (PWL)

The change in the weight of the samples stored in the

bamboo jute coolers, pots in pot and ambient (control)
were recorded daily (Fig. 6). The percentage weight loss
was estimated using the formula below.

Original Weight New Weight

PWL = 100
(2)
Original Weight
Appearance
Appearance was also evaluated by consumer panelists for
physical damage, freshness and rot incidence using a 1-5
Hedonic scale where; 5 is high and 1 is none. The
sensory results revealed that the shelf life of tomatoes
were 5 days, 19 days and 21 days for the ambient
(control), pot in pot and bamboo jute evaporative coolers,
respectively (Fig. 7). This shows that the two evaporative
cooling systems are much better to improve the shelf life
of tomatoes as compared to the control
Fig. 7. Mean sensory scores of physical damage,
freshness and rot incidence of tomatoes stored in bamboo
jute (BJ), pot in pot cooler (P in P) and control.
Storage type has significant difference on cooling
efficiency but has no significant difference on
physiological weight loss, physical damage, freshness
and rot incidence at P<0.05 (Table 1 and 2). However,
the highest average cooling efficiency was observed for
bamboo jute cooler as compared to the other storage type.

Table 1. Effect of storage type on cooling efficiency (CE) and physiological weight loss (PWL).
Storage type CE (%) PWL (%)
Bamboo jute cooler 67.6a7.931 1.03a0.786
Pot in pot cooler 61.6b3.602 1.32a0.955
Control - 1.42a1.192
*Mean values not connected by same letter are significantly different at p<0.05.
The lowest percentage weight loss was recorded for bamboo jute cooler (1.03%) followed by pot in pot cooler (1.32%)
and control (1.42%) (Table 1).
Table 2. Effect of storage type on physical damage, Freshness and rot incidence.
Physical Damage Freshness Rot Incidence
3.36a0.698 3.24a0.876 3.08a1.025
a a
2.80 1.000 2.13 0.901 2.53a1.006
a a
3.52 1.308 3.58 1.473 3.32a1.493
*Mean values connected by same letter are not significantly different at p<0.05.

14 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

Development and Evaluation of Low Cost Evaporative Coolers to Minimize Postharvest Losses of Tomatoes
IV. CONCLUSION
This study was based on the principles of evaporative
cooling where warm dry air is cooled and humidified by
passing it through a wet surface. In this study, it was
possible to develop low cost alternative evaporative
cooling systems from locally available materials such as
bamboo jute and pot in pot coolers. Performance
evaluation revealed that the evaporative coolers had a
potential to reduce the temperature and increase the
relative humidity which is a suitable environment to
improve the shelf life of tomatoes up to three weeks
keeping acceptable qualities. In addition, the average
cooling efficiency during no load test for bamboo jute
cooler and pot in pot cooler was 82% and 79% and
during load test was 67.6% and 61.6%, respectively.
The percentage weight loss of tomatoes was less in the
bamboo jute cooler as compared to those stored in the pot
in pot and ambient. Based on this study, the storage
systems can address the need for refrigeration in areas
where electricity is unavailable and/or areas with high
ambient temperature and low RH (windy). The systems
can be also effectively used at household and retailers
level. However, future studies can be done to reduce
breakage of pot-in-pot evaporative cooler and to prevent
growth of molds on the surface of bamboo jute cooler.
BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
REFERENCES
1. Agonafir, Y., 1991. Economics of horticultural
production in Ethiopia. Acta Hort.; 270: 15-19.
2. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO),
1989. Prevention of postharvest food losses:
fruits, vegetables and root crops. Rome.
3. Harris, N. C., 1987. Modern Air conditioning
Practice (3rd ed.). Publ. N.Y.: Mc Graw-Hill
Book Co.
4. Mitra, S. K and E. Z. Baldwin, 1997. Post
harvest physiology and storage of tropical and
subtropical fruits. CAB International. West
Bengal. India, pp. 85-122.
5. Seyoum, T. W and K. Woldetsadik, 2000.
Natural ventilation evaporative cooling of
mango. J. Agric. Biotech. and Enviro. 2(1/2): 1-
5.
6. Seyoum, T. W. and K. Woldetsadik, 2004.
Forced ventilation evaporative cooling: A case
study on banana, papaya, orange, mandarin &
lemon. Trop. Agric. 81 (3): 179-185.
7. Thompson, J. F and R. F. Kasmire, 1981. The
concept of evaporative cooling, American
Vegetable Grower. 26: 43-46.
15
 Effect of chick pea level and feed moisture content on physical properties of teff flour extrudates

Effect of chick pea level and feed moisture content on physical

properties of teff flour extrudates
Sadik Jemal
School of Chemical & Food Engineering, Bahir Dar University, P.O.Box 26, Bahir Dar.

Abstract Effect of chick pea level (0-30%) and feed moisture content (12% and 14% wb) on
physical properties of extruded product from teff [Eragrostis teff (Zucc.) Trotter] (CR-387 variety)
and chick pea (Cicer arietinum L.) (marye variety) were investigated. Chick pea level showed more
effect on physical properties of products than feed moisture content. Increased level of chick pea
resulted in increased bulk density and water solubility index (WSI) and decreased diametric expansion
ratio and sensory crispness. On the other hand, lower feed moisture resulted in higher WSI. Sensory
analysis for crispness revealed that the most accepted product had a mean score of 3.93 (on 5-point
rating scale) and was produced from 10% chick pea blend at 14% feed moisture. The mean values of
diametric expansion ratio, bulk density, WAI and WSI of this product were 1.58, 127.5 kg/m3, 5.7g/g
and 30.92%, respectively. Thus twin screw extrusion of teff flour blended with 10% chick pea flour
would produce an acceptable snack enhanced by protein.
Key words- teff, chick pea, extrusion, crispness.
I. INTRODUCTION influences viscosity which is a crucial factor that
According to the national estimates of the Central determines the operating conditions of the extruder and
Statistics Authority [1], teff, [Eragrostis teff (Zucc.) hence product quality [11]. Extruder operating conditions
Trotter], accounts for about 16% of the gross grain such as barrel temperature and feed moisture content
production of all the cereals cultivated in Ethiopia have been indicated to affect product quality during
covering about 2.7 million hectares of land in 2011/12. extrusion of such products [3], [9], [10], [12]. Taking in
Because teff is predominantly grown in Ethiopia as a to account the potential of teff as an important starch-rich
cereal crop and its cultivation as a cereal grown for food cereal to produce new products coupled with the
is little known elsewhere in the world, its primary possibility of supplementing with protein-rich chick pea,
processing is mainly limited to indigenous processing to this work was conducted with the objective of
make injera, pancake-like fluffy soft bread, which is investigating the effect of chick pea-teff blend ratio and
staple food for most Ethiopians [2], [3]. The grain is also extruder operating conditions (feed moisture and barrel
used to make local alcoholic drinks, called tela and temperature) on physicochemical and sensory property of
katikala [2]. Teff contains more lysine than barley, extrudates.
millet, and wheat and slightly less than rice or oats [4]. II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
Teff is also gluten-free, and is gaining popularity as an Raw material preparation.
alternative grain for persons with gluten sensitivity [2].
Chick pea protein contains significant amounts of all Teff grain, CR-387 (locally known as kuncho variety),
the essential amino acids except sulphur containing and chick pea, marye variety, harvested in 2011/2012
types. Chick pea is also rich in nutritionally important production year, were collected from Adet Agricultural
unsaturated fatty acids like linoleic and oleic acid [5]. Research Center, Ethiopia. Teff grain was cleaned and
Further, there is a growing demand for chickpea due to milled into flour using commercial mill. Following
its high potential as a functional ingredient for the food grinding, the flour was sifted to pass through 710 m test
[6] [5]. Besides to nutrition merits, extrusion of a blend sieve [3]. The chick pea was cleaned, dehulled and sifted.
of teff and chick pea flour could be considered as a value Then the flake was milled using commercial mill and the
addition strategy for both food crops. Ethiopia is among flour was then sifted to pass through 710 m test sieve to
the major chickpea producing countries [5]. achieve uniform particle size with the teff flour. The
The effect of extruder operating conditions on the flour of both teff and chick pea was analyzed for
physical and sensory properties of tef flour was proximate composition (moisture content, crude protein,
investigated and the result ascertained the potential of tef crude fat, and total ash) according to Association of
for producing extrusion cooked products [3]. Extrusion Official Analytical Chemists [13]. The teff and chick pea
cooking of blend of teff flour with corn flour and soy flour was mixed based on the required level and stored at
protein isolates (SPI) was also conducted as protein room temperature for a week before extrusion to
enrichment strategy [7]. Successful cereal-legume condition the feed moisture content.
composites extrusion has been reported in the literature Experimental Design and extrusion experiment
[6], [8], [9], [10]. The composition of the feed material

BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1 16

16 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

 Effect of chick pea level and feed moisture content on physical properties of teff flour extrudates
A 42 full factorial experiment comprising of four
levels of chick pea level (0-30%) and two levels of feed
moisture content (12% & 14% wb) were used to produce
extruded snack. Extrusion was conducted on a pilot scale
co-rotating twin screw food extruder (Model Clextral,
BC-21 No 124, Firminy, France) using a die of 9 mm
size. The barrel has a smooth 300 mm useful length and
consists of three modules each 100 mm long fitted with
25 mm diameter screws. Each zone-temperature is
controlled by a Eurotherm controller (Eurotherm Ltd.
Worthing, UK). Twin screw volumetric feeder (type
KMV- KT20) delivers the raw material into the extruder
inlet. While operating, water at ambient temperature was
injected into the extruder via an inlet port by a positive
displacement pump (DKM-Clextral, France). The barrel
temperature was fixed in zone 2 at 70C and zone 3 at
130C (2 C). The moisture content of the feed was
adjusted by varying the water injection rate of the pump.
Both the feeder and the pump were calibrated prior to the
extrusion in order to avoid fluctuations during the
operation. The pump was adjusted to give a moisture
content of 12 and 14% (wb) in the mixes for a constant
material feed rate of 9
kg by using hydration
hr
Equation (Eq. 1) [14], [3]). The selected feed moisture
was estimated based on several preliminary experiments.
m mo
Wa = S w
100 m (1)
Where:
Wa = weight of water added (g), Sw = is sample flour
weight (g); mo= original flour moisture content (% wwb),
and m = required dough moisture level in (% wwb).
Determination of Product Properties
During extrusion, samples were extruded as straight
rope and extruded samples were collected when the
extrusion process parameters reach steady state. Straight
extrudates were manually cut to a uniform length of
about 2cm to calculate the physical properties. The
extruded products were placed on a table and allowed to
cool for 30 minutes at room temperature for the
measurement of weight and diameter, according to [3].
The other samples were sealed in plastic bags (after
equilibrated for 24 hr at ambient condition) and stored at
room temperature to measure water absorption index and
water solubility index.
Diametric expansion ratio
Length and diameter of the extrudates were
measured by a digital vernier caliper having 0.01 mm
accuracy (CEAHO, cccp, Russia). Weight was
measured on a balance of 0.1mg sensitivity (AAA250L,
Adam Equipment Co. Ltd, UK). A mean value of length,
weight and diameter from at least 4 measurements were
recorded for each experimental run. The diametric
expansion ratio, which is defined as the ratio of the
diameter of the extrudate to the diameter of the die hole
[16] was calculated as follows (Eq. 2).
BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
D
Dr = e (2)
Dd
Where: Dr is diametric expansion ratio, De is diameter
of extrudates in cm and Dd is diameter of die whole in cm
Bulk density
Based on the measurements of weight, length and
diameter as described above, the bulk density of the
extrudates was calculated as in Eq. (3) [16], [8], [3].
4w
= (3)
De 2 Le
Where:
= bulk density (g/cm3), De = diameter of extrudates
(cm), Le = length of extrudate (cm) and w = weight of
extrudate (g). The diameter and length units were
converted to metre (m) and weight unit were converted to
kg to calculate the density in kg/m3.
Water absorption index (WAI) and Water solubility
index (WSI)
WAI and WSI of extrudates were determined
according to [17]. Sample (about 1.25 g) was placed in
about 40 ml centrifuge tube and suspended in 30 ml
distilled water. The sample was incubated into constant
temperature stirred water bath (CU 420, Electric heat
constant temperature water box, China) at 25oC for 30
minutes and was centrifuged at 3000 g for 5 minutes.
Mass of the sample was determined before and after
decantation of the clear supernatant of the centrifugation.
The WAI was calculated as grams of adsorbed water per
gram of dry sample mass (Eq. 4). The supernatant
preserved from WAI measurement was transferred into
pre-dried and weighed glass beaker and then evaporated
at 105oC for overnight in a drying oven. The WSI was
calculated as a ratio of dry residue (Wr) to the original
mass used to estimate WAI (Wo). The result was
expressed as percentage.
Ws
WAI = (4)
Wo
Wr
WSI = 100 (5)
Wo
Where: Ws - weight of sediment (g) and Wo -weight of
Fifteen judges were selected from the staff and
undergraduate class students of Food Technology and
Food Process Engineering programme of Bahir Dar
University. The sensory attribute- crispness was analysed
17
 Effect of chick pea level and feed moisture content on physical properties of teff flour extrudates
using rating scale 1 (no crispy) to 5 (very crispy). Coded
product samples were arranged in a random order on
white plates and served to the sensory judges. Just before
the test session, orientation was given to the judges.
Statistical Data Analysis
Analysis of variance was carried out to investigate
the effect of chick pea level and feed moisture content on
product properties using [18]. Significance was judged
by determining the probability level that the F-statistic
calculated from the data was less than 5%. Mean
separation was carried out using LSD.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Proximate composition of raw materials
The proximate composition of teff and dehulled
chick pea flour is given in Table 1. As expected, the
crude protein and crude fat composition of dehulled
chick pea flour was significantly higher than teff flour
(p<0.05). The proximate composition of the teff flour is
in agreement with the literature except for its lower crude
protein content. [2] analysed proximate composition of
13 teff varieties grown in Ethiopia and reported that the
protein ranges from 8.7-11.1%, ash 1.99-3.16% and
crude fat 2.0-3.0% for moisture ranges from 9.3-11.22%.
[3] and [25] reported similar results with this study with
slight variations. The higher moisture content in this
study which is in agreement with [3] could be due to
field drying practices commonly used in Ethiopia. The
lower protein content in this study could be attributed to
the higher moisture content of the flour and agronomic
practices used during agricultural production.
Table 1 Proximate composition of teff and dehulled
chick pea flour.
Mean Standard deviation
Teff Chick pea
Component
Moisture 12.60a 0.44 8.73b 0.85
Protein 8.49a 0.68 17.65b 0.47
Crude fat 2.77 a
0.43 7.52 b
0.02
Ash 2.41 0.36 3.17 0.09
Diametric expansion ratio
The effect of chick pea level and feed moisture on
diametric expansion of extrudates is shown in fig. 1.
Chick pea level had significant effect on diametric
expansion of extrudates (P<0.05) while the effect of feed
moisture content was not statistically significant.
Increasing chick pea level resulted in reduction of
expansion for all the chick pea levels used. Substitution
of 20% and 30% chick pea flour to teff flour resulted in
extrudates that had significantly lower expansion than the
18 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
control (0%) while 30% chick pea flour substitution
showed significantly lower expansion than 10%.
Expansion of extrudates produced from 10% chick pea
flour substitution had lower expansion than the control,
though the difference was statistically insignificant. This
result is in agreement with [26] and [24] who reported
that blending higher proportion of chick pea flour to
purple rice flour and cow pea flour to sorghum flour
respectively, resulted in lower expansion of blend
extrudates. [8] Also reported increasingly lower
expansion of maize starch extrudates with the addition of
0-20% soy protein concentrate and associated the
phenomenon with starch-soy protein concentrate
interactions affecting the expansion indirectly by system
mechanical energy and directly by disrupting the
continuous starch matrix which reduces extensibility of
cell walls. Similar effect might have contributed to the
reduction of expansion at higher chick pea levels.
Further, the increase in lipid content of the blend at
higher chick pea level (table 1) could also contribute to
the reduction in expansion. [20] indicated that the
expanded volume of cereal flour decreases with
increasing amounts of protein and lipid. Oils and fats
provide a powerful effect on lubrication effect in the
compressed polymer mix during extrusion [21].
Fig 1. Effect of chick pea level on diametric
expansion of products extruded at 12 % () and 14 %
() feed moisture content.
Bulk density
The effect of chick pea level and feed moisture on
bulk density of extrudates is shown in fig. 2. Higher level
of chick pea flour resulted in higher bulk density. This
could be because of lower expansion at higher level of
chick pea (Fig 1) which could also be explained by the
negative association of bulk density with expansion ratio
(r = -0.67, P<0.05). [26] reported similar result while
extruding purple rice flour blended with 5-15% soybean.
Statistically significant difference (p<0.05) was observed
among extrudate bulk densities produced with all the
chick pea levels used except 20% and 30%.
As can be seen from fig 2, products extruded at
higher feed moisture (14%) had lower density for all the
 Effect of chick pea level and feed moisture content on physical properties of teff flour extrudates

chick pea levels used except for the control, though the with increasing chick pea level (Fig. 4) might indicate
difference was not statistically significant. On the other that the cumulative effect of the oil and protein from the
hand, the interaction of feed moisture and chick pea level chick pea had more effect than the dextrinzed starch.
had significant (p<0.05) effect on bulk density. Extrudates produced at 12% feed moisture had
Maximum mean bulk density of 273.7 kg/m3 was significantly higher WSI than those produced at 14%
observed for extrudates produced with 30% chick pea feed moisture (p<0.05). Similarly, higher WSI was
level extruded at 12% feed moisture while the minimum reported at lower feed moisture for teff [3] and wheat
mean bulk density of 61.3 kg/m3 was observed for the based extrudates [12]. As can be seen from fig 4, WSI
control at 12% feed moisture. showed an irregular type of trend with increasing chick
pea level may be because of the interaction of chick pea
level and feed moisture content that was statistically
significant (p<0.05). The maximum mean WSI was
observed for extrudates produced with 10% chick pea
level at 14% feed moisture while the minimum mean
value was observed for extrudates produced with 20%
chick pea level at 12% feed moisture. This might be
partly because as the chick pea proportion increased, the
oil content increased and hence the oil may act as a
barrier for moisture transfer to the starch, which results in
lower WSI. Increase in WSI with decrease in feed
moisture may be attributed to higher degradation of
starch [17] which produces more soluble lower chain
starch aggregates. This could also be explained by the
correlation of WSI which was positive against expansion
Fig 2. Effect of chick pea level on bulk density ratio (r = 0.45, p<0.05) and negative against bulk density
of products extruded at 5 % () and 10 % () feed (r = -0.58).
moisture content.
Water absorption index (WAI) and Water solubility index
(WSI)
Gelatinization which leads to transformation of raw
starches to a cooked digestible material is one of the
important effects that extrusion has on starch component
of foods. Higher WSI indicates starch has been
dextrinzed [8]; [3]. In this study, neither of the factors
nor their interaction had significant effect on WAI of
extrudates (P>0.05) (Fig 3). Despite this, chick pea level,
feed moisture and their interaction had significant effect
on WSI. WSI showed reducing trend with increasing
chick pea level, and the differences were statistically
significant except for extrudates produced at 10% chick Fig 3. Effect of chick pea level on WAI of
pea level and the control. products extruded at 12 % () and 14 % () feed
Both increasing and decreasing trends of WSI with moisture content.
blended legume level exist in the literature. Extruding
corn and soybean protein concentrate (SPC) blend, [8]
found out that WSI decreased with increase in SPC level.
[27] concluded the same when investigating the effect of
addition of pea grits on rice flour during extrusion. [19]
also reported lower WSI with increasing levels of SPC in
cassava starch-SPC blend extrusion. Other researchers
reported the opposite. WSI increased with cowpea
proportion during sorghum and cowpeas blend extrusion
[24]. WSI was also reported to increase with increase in
soybean proportion in African bread fruit, yellow corn
and defatted soybean flour extrudates [23]. Extrusion is
known to decrease protein solubility, which has been
related to the formation of insoluble aggregates,
involving both covalent disulfide bonds and non-covalent
interactions [22]. Oils and fats provide a powerful Fig 4. Effect of chick pea level on WSI of
lubrificant effect in the compressed polymer mix during products extruded at 12 % () and 14 % () feed
extrusion cooking [21] which further negatively affect moisture content
the WSI. Generally, the decrease in WSI of extrudates

BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1 19

 Effect of chick pea level and feed moisture content on physical properties of teff flour extrudates
Crispness
The mean sensory crispness scores as affected by
chick pea level and feed moisture are given in fig. 5.
Chick pea level had significant effect on crispness of
extrudates (p<0.05) while the effect of feed moisture was
not statistically significant. Higher chick pea level
resulted in extrudates that had lower crispiness score.
[19] also reported increased level of whey protein isolate
resulted in reduced crispiness score while extruding corn
starch - whey protein isolate blend. In this study, the
decrease in crispness with higher chick pea level could
be due to reduced expansion as explained above.
Crispness was positively correlated with expansion (r =
0.66, p<0.05) and WSI (r = 0.59, p<0.05) and negatively
correlated with bulk density (r = -0.69) indicating that the
more accepted product was characterized by higher
expansion, higher solubility and lower density. The
crispness of expanded extrudate is a perception of the
human being and is associated with the expansion and
cell structure of the product [12]. Although all the
products had mean crispness values above the average,
implying that they were liked by the judges, extrudates
produced with 10% chick pea level at 14% feed moisture
was rated maximum.
Fig 5. Effect of chick pea level on crispness of
products extruded at 12 % () and 14 % () feed
moisture content
IV. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Chick pea level and feed moisture content were found to
affect physical properties of extrudates. Chick pea level
had dominant and significant effect on most of the
physical properties of the extrudates. Generally, higher
chick pea level resulted in lower diametric expansion
ratio, higher bulk density and higher WSI. The effect of
feed moisture was not significant for all the quality
parameters considered except WSI probably because
narrow range of feed moisture content (12-14% wb) was
used. It is important worth mentioning here that low
moisture extrusion was adequate to produce puffed
product from teff and chick pea blend.
Sensory evaluation for crispness revealed that all the
products were rated above the average. The most
accepted extrudate had a mean crispness score of 3.93
(on 5-point rating scale) and was produced with 10%
20 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
chick pea level at 14% feed moisture. This product had a
mean value of 1.58, 127.5 kg/m3, 5.7g/g and 30.92% for
diametric expansion ratio, bulk density, WAI and WSI,
respectively. Therefore, twin screw extrusion of teff and
chick pea blend produces acceptable snack. Inclusion of
different food additives could produce more acceptable
product. Further study is recommended for antinutritional
components.
REFERENCES
1. CSA (Centeral Statistics Authority),
Agricultural sample survey 2011/2012 Vol. I.
report on area and production for major crops
(private peasant holdings, meher season).
Statistical Bulletin, May 2012, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, 2012.
2. Bultosa, G. Physicochemical characterstics of
grain and flour in 13 teff [Eragrostis teff
(zucc.) Trotter] grain varieties. Applied
Sciences Research 3(12), 2042-2051, 2007.
3. Kebede, L., S. Worku, G. Bultosa and S.
Yetnebere. Effect of extrusion operating
conditions on the physical and sensory
properties of teff (Eragrostis tef [Zucc.]
Trotter) flour extrudates. Ethiop .J. Appl. Sci.
Technol 1(1), 27-38, 2010.
4. Piccinin DM, More about Ethiopian Food: Teff,
Department of nutrition and Food Service.
From an interview with Tsegazeab Woldetatios,
Ph.D, Agriculture Contract Interpreter at
Harbor view Medical Center, Christine Wilson
editor (4), 2002.
5. Jukanti A.K., P. M. Gaur*, C. L. L. Gowda and
R. N. Chibbar, Nutritional quality and health
benefits of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.): a
review. British Journal of Nutrition. 108: S11-
S26, 2012.
6. Deshpande, H. W. and Poshadri, A, Physical
and sensory characteristics of extruded snacks
prepared from Foxtail millet based composite
flours. International Food Research Journal
18: 751-756, 2011.
7. Sirawdink, F. and H.S. Ramaswamy, Protein
rich extruded products from teff, corn and soy
protein isolate blends. Ethiop. J. Appl. Sci.
Technol 2(2), 75-90, 2011.
8. De Mesa N.J.E, Alavi S, Singh N, SHI Y.C,
Dogan H, Sang Y, Soy protein-fortified
expanded extrudates: baseline study using
normal corn starch. Journal of food
engineering, 90: 262-270, 2009.
9. Chakraborty P and Banerjee, Otimization of
extrusion process for production of expanded
product from green gram and rice by response
surface methodology. Journal of scientific and
industrial research. 68:140-148, 2009.
10. Perez A.A, Silvina R. Drago, Carlos R. Carrara,
Dardo M. De Greef, Roberto L. Torres,
Rolando J. Gonzalez, and Extrusion cooking of
a maize/soybean mixture: Factors affecting
 Effect of chick pea level and feed moisture content on physical properties of teff flour extrudates
expanded product characteristics and flour
dispersion viscosity. Journal of Food
Engineering 87: 333340, 2008.
11. .Moraru, C.I. and J.L. Kokini, Nucleation and
expansion during extrusion and microwave
heating of cereal foods. Comprehensive
Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety,
2:120-138, 2003.
12. Ding, Q.-B., P. Ainsworth, A. Plonkell, G.
Tucker and H. Marson, The effect of extrusion
conditions on the functional and physical
properties of wheat based expanded snacks.
Journal of Food Engineering 73: 142-148,
2006.
13. Association of Official Analytical Chemists,
16th edition, Washington, DC. 2005.
14. Golob, P., G. Farrel and J. E. Orchard,
(eds.).Crop post harvest science and
technology, principles and practices. Volume I.
Black well science ltd, Black well, 2002.
15. Ibanoglu, S., P. Ainworth, E.A. Ozer and A.
Plunkett, Physical and sensory evaluation of
nutritionally balanced gluten free extruded
snack. Journal of Food Engineering, 2005.
16. Mason, W. R. and R. C. Hosney, Factors
affecting the viscosity of extrusion cooked
wheat starch. Cereal Chemistry 63: 436-441,
1986.
17. Anderson, R. A., H.F. Conway, V.R. Pfeifer and
L. Griffin, Gelatinization of corn grits by roll
and extrusion cooking. Cereal Science. Today
14: 4-12, 1969.
18. SPSS, Statistical Package for Social Scientists.
Prentice Hall Chicago, IL, 2007.
19. Cheng, E.M., S. Alavi, T. Pearson, and R.
Agbisit, Mechanicalacoustic and sensory
evaluations of corn starch-whey protein isolate
BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
extrudates. Journal of Texture Studies 38: 473-
498, 2007
20. Chinnaswamy, R. and W.A. Hanna,
Relationship between amylose content and
extrusionexpansion properties of corn starch.
Cereal Chemistry 65(2):138-143, 1988.
21. Ilo, S., R. Schoenlechner and E. Berghofe, Role
of lipids in the extrusion cooking processes,
Grasasy Aceites (Austria) 51: 97-110, 2000
22. Liu, K., and F.H. Hsieh, Protein-protein
interactions during high-moisture extrusion for
fibrous meat analogues and comparison of protein
solubility methods using different solvent
systems. Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry 56:2681-2687, 2008.
23. Nwabueze, I. U, Water/oil absorption and
solubility indices of extruded African breadfruit
(Treculia Africana) blends. Journal of Food
Technology 4(1): 64-69, 2006.
24. Pelembe, L. A. M., C. Erasmusn and J. R. N.
Taylor, Development of a protein-rich
composite sorghum-cowpea instant porridge by
extrusion cooking process. Lebensm. - Wises.
U.-Technol 35, 120127, 2002.
25. Sadik, J. A., B. Demelash, and M. Gizaw,
Hydration kinetics of teff grain. Agric Eng Int:
CIGR Journal, 15(1): 124-130, 2013.
26. Suksomboon, A., K. Limroongreungrat, A.
Sangnark, K. Thititumjariya, and A.
Noomhorm, Effect of extrusion conditions on
the physicochemical properties of a snack made
from purple rice (Hom Nil) and soybean flour
blend. International Journal of Food Science
and Technology 46:201-208, 2011.
27. Singh, B., K. S. Sekhon, and N. Singh, Effect of
moisture, temperature and level of pea grits on
extrusion behavior and product characteristics
of rice. Food Chemistry 100:198- 202. 2007.
21
 Evaluating Solar Disinfection Potential for Drinking Water Treatment for Rural Communities in Amhara Region

Evaluating Solar Disinfection Potential for Drinking Water

Treatment for Rural Communities in Amhara Region
Henok Getachew 1, Zenamarkos Bantie2
1
School of Chemical & Food Engineering, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, email:heniched@gmail.com
2
School of Chemical & Food Engineering, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, email:zenamar23@gmail.com

Abstract Water-borne disease in developing countries leads to millions of deaths and billions of
illnesses annually. Water disinfection is one of several interventions that can improve public health.
SOlar DISinfection (SODIS) is a simple water treatment method using natural solar radiation to
inactivate pathogens commonly found in drinking water. This technology involves simply filling
transparent PET bottles with contaminated water and exposing the bottles to direct sunlight. This
research examined the potential of SODIS for drinking water treatment. For the research sample was
collected from Lake Tana, Abay River and Wereta town .Then the samples were put into 0.5L, 1L and
2L PET bottles and exposed to sunshine from 8 am to 5 pm. MPN method was use to analyzed
microbial content every three hours. After the sample was exposed for 6 hours of sunshine a 3-log
reduction of coliforms was achieved regardless of bottle size.

I. INTRODUCTION supplies). Therefore the criteria for this point-of-use

Access to clean drinking water is one of the worlds most
overwhelming development challenges. The United
Nations Development Program (UNDP) estimates that 1
billion people today lack access to a safe, adequate water
supply [1]. Clean water is essential to maintaining human
health because waterborne pathogens cause diseases such
as cholera, typhoid fever, and diarrhea. These pathogens
usually originate from an infected host (either human or
animal) and are transmitted by contaminated water
through the fecal oral route [2]. WHO report point out
that every 8 seconds, a child dies from water related
disease around the globe, 50% of people in developing
countries suffer from one or more of water related
diseases, 80% of diseases in the developing countries are
caused by contaminated water. There are over 800
million cases of diarrhea reported each year, of which
about 5 million result in death [3].
Waterborne pathogens belong to the groups of bacteria,
viruses and parasites. Although Viruses are often not
detected in the water or the host, they may account for
the largest group of causative agents, followed by
parasites and bacteria. The main factors influencing the
health related relevance of pathogens transmitted through
water are the pathogens ability to survive in the
environment and the number of pathogens necessary to
infect a host (human) [4]. The risk related to different
levels of contamination with faecal coliforms must be
assessed considering the local circumstances. The risk
related to a given contamination increases with the
number of people being supplied by a water system.
Therefore with the increasing size of a water supply
system the quality criteria are higher (i.e. higher
standards for towns as compared to small community
system should also not be too stringent. WHO Guidelines
classifies the presence of 1-10 faeca coliforms or E.coli
per 100ml in water supplies as low risk, a concentration
of 10-100 ml as intermediate risk.
Table 1: Classication scheme of faecal coliforms in
water supplies [5]
No. of coliforms Remarks
per 100 ml
In compliance with
0 who guidelines
1-10 Low risk
10-100 Intermediate risk
100-1000 High risk
>1000 Very high risk
Waterborne diseases can be successfully controlled
through the protection and treatment of water supplies.
Centralized water treatment facilities are common in
developed countries but are considered too capital
intensive to be implemented in many developing
countries. In addition, when such infrastructure does exist
in developing countries, it is usually limited to urban
communities.
Statistical data from the Ethiopia Federal Ministry of
Water Resources shows, only approximately 37% of the
Ethiopian population was supplied by technology
considered to be improved, and only one fifth was served
by utility piped supplies. Most of Ethiopian population
(approximately 63%) relied on sources that are

22 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

Evaluating Solar Disinfection Potential for Drinking Water Treatment for Rural Communities in Amhara Region

unimproved, such as ponds, lakes, rivers and open dug of dissolved oxygen contain in the sample. To date,
wells [6]. successful SODIS studies have been completed in
The estimated cost of providing worldwide water supply Columbia, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Togo, Indonesia,
coverage in developing countries is US$150 billion [5]. Thailand, and China.
This cost cannot possibly be met by public funds, which In this research the efficiency of SODIS with different
are insufficient to even cover the costs of maintenance of locally available plastic bottles size was studied as a
the current infrastructure. An alternative to public water function of log removal of total coliform using MPN
supply for people in developing countries is the use method.
personal household water treatment systems, or point of
use water treatment systems. The most effective water II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
treatment usually consists of two stages: filtration and Sample Collection
disinfection. In order to be most effective and appealing 20L water sample was collected from Lake Tana, Abay
to its users, a point of use water purification system River and Wereta Town by using sterilized jerrican. The
should fulfill the following criteria [7]-[8]: sample turbidity determined and then the sample put
Effective across a range of pathogens into well washed and sterilized 0.5L, 1L and 2L PET
Robust to changes in water quality bottles.
Effective in appropriate pH and temperature Sodis experimental
range Once the samples were put into sterilize PET bottles of
Should not make water toxic or unpalatable 2, 1, and 0.5 liters, the bottles shake for 20 seconds each
Safe and easy to handle in order to aerate them. Then these bottles placed on a
sheet of corrugated iron inclined at 22 to the horizontal
Must provide residual protection against
while the control bottles kept in the dark at ambient
possible recontamination
temperature. After each 3 hours bacterial count test was
Affordable
conducted three times from 8 am to 5 pm using MPN.
Adaptable to local conditions
Amenable to local production
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Appropriate to local culture and customs
The Potential of Solar Disinfection (Sodis) for Drinking
Comply with national sanitation standards
Water Treatment was investigated for samples from three
locations as a function of exposure time (8 am - 5 Pm)
Current household disinfection mechanisms include
and bottle size (2, 1, and 0.5 liters).
boiling water, filtration, and chlorination. However, Inactivation rate increase exponentially with time and a
boiling water requires energy in the form of fuel woods, 3-log reduction of coliforms was achieved after 6 hours
which are used in rural areas of Ethiopia which of exposure, as can be presented in fig. 1, 2, and 3 for all
exacerbating deforestation. The use of chlorine is often samples regardless of the difference in atmospheric
rejected by users because of the undesirable taste and temperature, water turbidity and bottle size.
odor associated with it, as well as because of its cost and
unreliable supply and quality for rural communities.
Filtration techniques are also often unaffordable and such
systems requires skilled man power for proper operation.
A more reliable and less expensive water disinfection
technique for rural areas in developing countries is Solar
Disinfection.
SOlar DISinfection (SODIS) is a simple water treatment
method using natural solar radiation to inactivate
pathogens commonly found in drinking water. It consists
of placing low turbidity (<30NTU) water in clear plastic
bottles (normally 2L PET beverage bottles) and exposing
the bottles to the sun, usually by placing them on roofs.
Exposure times vary from 6 to 48 hours depending on the
intensity of sunlight [9].
Fig.1. Rate of removal of coliforms for sample collected
SODIS utilizes the power of the sun to inactivate
from Lake Tana, with 0.5L PET bottle, turbidity 21 NTU
microorganisms using UV-A radiation and increased
and average atmosphere temperature 250c.
temperature. Because this technology is so simple, both
in concept and application, it is easily applicable in the
developing world where safe water resources are scarce.
However, the success of SODIS is dependent on a
number of conditions, including climate, water clarity
(turbidity), material and shape of containers, and amount

BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1 23

 Evaluating Solar Disinfection Potential for Drinking Water Treatment for Rural Communities in Amhara Region
Fig.2. Rate of removal of coliforms for sample collected
from Abay River, with 0.5L PET bottle, turbidity 22.5
NTU and average atmosphere temperature 270c.
Fig.3. Rate of removal of coliforms for sample collected
from Woreta town, with 1L PET bottle, turbidity 20 NTU
and average atmosphere temperature 270c.
As it can be seen from all figures, after 6 hours around
99% of the pathogens (coliforms) were destroyed. So
according to WHO guideline the water from all three
sources can be use as a drinking water.
Eventhough, the potential of solar disinfection is affected
by temperature, turbidity and container size, in this
research there is no clear synergy specially between the
level of disinfection and container size as can be seen
from fig.4.
24 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
Fig. 4. Rate of disinfection as a function of bottle size for
sample from Woreta town
The reason might be the turbidity in all the samples is
less than 30 NTU and also the atmospheric temperature is
almost the same. That is why in all bottle size 99%
removal efficiency is achieved.
IV. CONCLUSION
The result of this research demonstrates SODIS is a
reliable method for drinking water disinfection at
household level since the method used to destroy 99% of
the microbial load from the raw water within 6 hours of
sunlight exposure.
However, SODIS will probably never supply 100% safe
water to the whole population. Poor handling practices
and inadequate application of the method lead to a
reduced SODIS efficiency, or the treated drinking water
is subject to secondary contamination. The objective of
SODIS therefore is to signicant reduce the risk of
microbiological infection.
REFERENCES
1. Reed, R., Mani, S. & Meyer, V. 2000 Solar photo-
oxidative disinfection of drinking water: Preliminary
field observations. Lett. Appl. Microbiol. 30(6), 432-
436.
2. Maier, R.M., I.L. Pepper, and C.P. Gerba. 2000.
Environmental Microbiology. Academic Press. San
Diego, California.
3. Wegelin, M., S. Canonica, K. Mechsner, F. Persaro,
and A. Metzler. 1994. Solar Water Disinfection:
Scope of the process and analysis of radiation
experiments. Journal of Water Science Research and
Technology 43(3): pp. 154-169.
4. Curtis V., S. Cairncross, and Yonli R. (2000):
Domestic hygiene and diarrhea - pinpointing the
problem. Tropical Medicine and International Health,
5(1): p. 22 - 32.
5. WHO (1997): Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality.
Vol. 3, Geneva
6. Rapid Assessment Of Drinking Water Quality in The
Federal Democratic Republic Of Ethiopia, Country
Report Country Report Of The Pilot Project
Implementation In 2004-2005.
7. Lehr, J.H., T.E. Gass, W.A. Pettyjohn, and
J.DeMarre. 1980. Domestic Water Treatment.
McGraw-Hill Book Company. New York.
8. Shultz, C.R., Okun, D.A., 1984, Surface Water
Treatment for Communities in Developing Countries,
John Wiley, N.Y.
9. Solar Water Disinfection A Guide For the Application
of SODIs: Swiss Federal Institute of Environmental
Science and Technology (EAWAG) Department Of
Water and Sanitation In Developing Countries
(SANDEC), October 2002.
Foundry Properties of Silica Sand Deposits at Blue Nile Gorge and Jemma River Basin

Foundry Properties of Silica Sand Deposits at Blue Nile Gorge

and Jemma River Basin
Amare Demelie and Biruk Abate
1. School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar,
P.O.B:26, Ethiopia, E-mail:smie@bdu.edu.et
2. School of Chemical & Food Engineering, Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, P.O.B: 26 ,
Ethiopia, E-mail:scfe@bdu.edu.et

Abstract this study investigated foundry properties of silica sand protrusions at two selected sites
of Amhara region, Blue Nile gorge and Jemma river basin. The work incorporates both the field and
laboratory works. Under the field work ten specific areas under the two sites were surveyed and based
on preliminary tests performed four of them were selected for sampling. Cluster sampling in
combination with systematic line sampling method was applied in the sample collection procedures. 64
samples at both of the sites were collected and changed to 16 composite samples by blending four
samples in the same profile in to one composite sample for the ease of laboratory test.The chemical
composition tests were performed at Muger cement factory, Muger. The natural clay content, sieve
analysis, green compression strength, dry compression strength, green shear strength and Green
permeability tests were performed at the laboratories of Federal Micro and Small Enterprises
Development Agency and Akaki Basic Metals Industry, Addis Ababa. Indigenous bentonite clay
collected from Afar region, Mille was used specially for bond strength and permeability tests. The
chemical composition test result shows greater than 80% Sio2 content at both the sites, the results of
the sieve test show the sand at both the sites is coarse with Grain fines number less than 40. Bond
strength tests performed shows relatively lower values less than 9 psi green compression strength,
between 22 and 66 psi dry compression strength. This is mainly due to the coarseness of the sand
particles and may be also the quality of bentonite applied, with the same reasoning the permeability
value is higher up to 500. All these results shows that the silica sand at both the sites are coarse to be
used as it is but by removing sand retained in the large sieve sizes or blending with fine sands it can be
used specially for ferrous castings.
Key words- Silica sand, sampling, grain size, mold strength, permeability.

I. INTRODUCTION 1980s in the finding of exact locations, available amounts

In metalworking, casting involves pouring liquid metal
into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the
desired shape, and then allowed it to cool and solidify. In
sand casting sand (silica sand) is used for preparation of
the mold. This process comprises over 70% of metal
castings all over the world [16]. This is due to the
following intrinsic natures of silica sand: high
refractoriness or temperature resistant without fusing,
chemical resistivity not to react with molten metal and
the permeability nature to pass air through during
solidification, e.tc. Generally the molding material for
green and dry sand castings is a combination of the three
main constituents: The base sand (silica sand), clay and
water.
In this research work it has been tried to study the
foundry properties of silica sand occurrences in two
selected areas of Amhara region, Ethiopia, the Blue Nile
gorge and the Jemma river basin. Studying the foundry
properties of silica sand protrusions available in different
places of the country is not a well practiced activity in
relation with the very low level of developments in the
foundry technology in the country. But different surveys
and researches have been carried out by foreign and
Ethiopian researchers especially during the 1970s and
and chemical composition of the silica sand protrusions
for the purpose of using the silica sand for bottle and
glass industries.
As Amenti Abrham [2] did, five sand stone profiles were
chip sampled at approximately 1m interval both on the
eastern and western prospects of the Abay River around
the Blue Nile Bridge in queries where there were good
rock exposures. The chemical compositions of 35
samples from the 5 profiles have been carried out and
accordingly an average concentration of 95% sio2 has
been revealed. Another study was conducted by C.
Gerland and Bekele W. [4], samples were taken in two
batches the frist batch consisting of various points along
the Abay River, a cliff west of the bridge100m upstream
and below the bridge. The chemical composition analysis
of this batch shows a variable composition of Sio2
between 90% and 97%.
The other sand stone batch, taken from below the bridge
itself, has silica purity between 94-96%.
According to a study made on sand in the Jemma River
Basin in 1979 [15] a wide range of samples have been
collected including Zega wodem, Jemma vally, Wonchit
valley and Betto river. Chanel samples were taken along
the whitest sand stones and elsewhere chip samples only.

BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1 25

 Foundry Properties of Silica Sand Deposits at Blue Nile Gorge and Jemma River Basin

The chemical composition of the sand samples specially
taken from Jemma valley shows that the sand stone there
is Interbedded with ferruginous sandstone, are light grey
to white. The sandstone lenses from a few centimeters to
10m thick. Sieve analyses were performed over the
samples collected and the result shows the main mass of
the sandstone is fine grained (less than 0.1mm).
A contract was signed between the ministry of mines and
the glass and bottle making co. in Addis Ababa for the
estimation of row material reserves at specified localities.
The result showed the silica sand reserve at the Jemma
river valley was about 500,000 ton, [20] which may be as
it is today, because of less usage of the sand stone in the
area.
Index property tests, tests for impurities and chemical
contents of the silica sand samples collected at Jemma
River were conducted by Belayneh Birhanu [12] for the
preparation of standard sand used for preparation of
mortars in the testing of hydraulic cements. Accordingly
it has been found an average sieve size of 0.5 mm and
1mm and average clay content of 1.27 and 1.35% form
two samples collected.
From previous works it can be observed that the chemical
composition and sieve sizes of sand areas under study are
well investigated by different researchers but these two
properties (chemical composition and sieve size
determination) are mainly important to use the silica sand
for glass and bottle manufacturing purposes. But to use
these sands for mold preparation it requires further
studies such as: mechanical sieve analysis, bond strength
analysis using different binders, air permeability and
refractoriness determination.
relatively difficult for car access so other material
handling equipments like conveyors are recommended
for the second site. The latitudinal and longitudinal
locations of sample area one are 104'16"N, 3811'9"E
and sample area two 104'43"N, 3811'41"E with an
approximate elevation from sea level of 1044m and
1050m respectively.
The Jemma river basin is around 200kms north of Addis
Ababa. The road from Addis Ababa to Fichie is
asphalted. From MelkaTurie to Lemie, there is an all-
weather gravel road. From Lemie to Jemma the road can
only be used in the dry season.
This region is Much rich with silica sand there are
large number of protrusion at different places of the area
and currently this area is the source of silica sand for
some of the foundreis in Addis Ababa. Two of the areas
sampled (fig. 2) out 6 areas surveyed include the silica
sand site owned by Akaki basic metals industry.
Exact locations of sampled site one is 950'43"N,
3854'35"E and sampled site two 950'33"N, 3854'34"E
with an elevation fo 1809m and 1911m from sea level.

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS

All the materials for this research work were collected
locally. The silica sand was collected from Blue Nile
gorge and Jemma river valley. The binding bentonite clay
was sourced from Afar region, Mille. All the physical
property tests were carried with the standard Rissadale
and Ridsadel Dietert foundry sand testing equipments
available at the laboratories of The Federal Micro and
Small Enterprises Development Agency and Akaki Basic
Metals Industry, Addis Ababa and the chemical
composition test at Mugger cement factory, Muger.
A. Location and access of sampled areas
The location of the site of Blue Nile gorge is along the
main high way from Bahirdar to Addis Ababa around
renaissance bridge approximately 345 to 360 km from
Bahir dar. The two separate sites which were sampled out
of 4 different areas surveyed are found on the opposite
sides of the bridge (fig.1). Sample area one exists around
1500 m far on the right side (when to go from Bahirdar to
addis Ababa) of the main highway before we traverse the
bridge. Sample two founds to the opposite side of sample
one about 1000m far from the bridge.
Sample site one is relatively easy to access by car with
simple preparation of the road while sample to being

26 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

Foundry Properties of Silica Sand Deposits at Blue Nile Gorge and Jemma River Basin
\ K20
Fig. 1. Sample site of Blue Nile gorge
Fig. 2. Sample site of Jema river basin
B. Sampling
It was applied cluster sampling in combination with
systematic line sampling techniques to collect
representative samples.
With two clusters selected at both the sites, 16 samples
were collected in each specific site So that a total of 64
samples have been collected at all the sites. Depending
on the nature of the silica sand; application in the foundry
and cost constraints it was designed a composite sample
preparation strategy to incorporate all the samples for the
experimental tests. So that four single samples in the
same profile came to one composite sample. Finally we
had 16 composite samples from 64 single samples
collected.
It became also possible to collect indiginious bentonite
clay which is mined at the afar region around Mile, with
exact location of 40 39' 00"E, 11 22' 20"N . Previous
studies [17] show the chemical composition of the clay as
follows (table. 2).
BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
Table. 1. Chemical composition of indigenous bentonite
clay
Si02 Al203 Fe203 Ca0 Mg0 Na20
49 13.4 8.71 3.87 2.79 1.10
Mn0 Ti02 P205 H20 L0I
1.31 0.1 1.61 - - -
C. Laboratory sample preparation
The required amount of sand, clay and water for each of
the 16 composite samples were measured in accordance
with the varying proportion of sand, clay and water and
put in to laboratory mixer to be mixed for about 10
minutes. The mixture mass which gives a 2 inch by 2
inch standard sample size was weighed. The sample in
the specimen tube is rammed with the standard sand
rammer of 3 blows. The 2 inch by 2 inch rammed sample
was finally ejected from the tube using the extractor. This
sample preparation procedure was applied for all the
samples specially for bond strength tests and
permeability tests without extracting the sample out of
the tube in the later case.
D. Natural clay content determination
For testing purposes, clay in molding sand is defined as
particles which fail to settle one inch per minute when
suspended in water. These are usually less than 20
microns, or 0.0008in., in diameter. [1] This definition
includes all very fine material, fine silica or silt, as well
as the clay mineral present. Small quantity of prepared
molding sand were dried; 100g separated and transferred
to wash bottle and washed by 475cc of water + 25cc of a
3% NaOH solution.The mixture were agitated about 5
minutes with the help of sand stirrer. The wash bottle was
filled with water up to the marker and settled for about 10
minutes . the water siphoned out from the wash bottle,
diluted again with water up to the marker, and settled for
10 minutes.The water was siphoned out from the wash
bottle, diluted again with water up to the marker, and
settled for 5 minutes. The later step was repeated enough
times so that, after standing 5 min, the water was clear.
Finally the settled down sand was made to dry and
weighted. clay content was determined from the
difference in weights of the sand before and after
washing.
E. Determination of grain size and distribution
100g. of dried and clay separated sand sample was placed
on top of a series of sieves and shaken for 15 minutes. By
definition the grain fineness number is the average grain
size and it corresponds to the sieve number whose
openings would just pass all the sand grains if all were
the same size [1]. Sample of dried and clay removed
sand was placed in the upper sieve and vibrated for 15
min. The amount of sand retained on each sieve and the
27
 Foundry Properties of Silica Sand Deposits at Blue Nile Gorge and Jemma River Basin

bottom pan was weighted and recorded in columns. The G. Permeability Determination
distribution of the sand particles was verifid using plot
The rate in milliliters per minute at which air will pass
(fig 4). The grain fines number was determined by
through the sand under a standard condition of pressure is
multiplieng each seive weight by the preceding sieve
used as index of permeability of sand. Among the two
mesh number. The sum total of the product was divided
methods availavale: the standard time and pressure
by the total sample aligned and this produced the fineness
method which requires a little calculation and the
number of the sand.
calibrated orifice method without calculation, which is
F. Bond strength determination applied for routine permeability measurements, the
routine method using calibrated orfice of The 1.5mm
Perhaps the most important property of molding sand
diameter (larger) was applied.
is that it possesses sufficient strength so that when moist
The air valve has been turned to VENT and raised air
the sand will retain the shape of the pattern, and maintain
drum until it is above the water level. And then the valve
that shape against the washing effect of the molten metal
turned to CLOSED and the drum allowed descending
in order to produce an accurate casting. In making large
slowly into the water. The air valve have been gradually
castings, coarse sands are used and must possess a higher
turned towards VENT and allow the air drum to
degree of strength than fine sands used for smaller
descend until the X mark on the drum is level with the
castings because the washing action of the molten metal
top edge of the tank. And then the valve turned
is greater and the casting is heavier. Sands used for small
CLOSED. Standard cylindrical specimen of 50 mm
or light castings do not require such high bond strength,
height and 50 mm diameter prepared have been placed at
but the molding of intricate patterns calls for a fairly
the center post with out stripping from the tube and
constant bond strength over a wide range of moisture
sealed by rotating the knurled ring anti clockwise. The air
content. All the bond strength tests: green compression,
drum allowed descending by turning the air valve to a
dry compression and green shear strength tests were
position midway between CLOSED and VENT. The
performed using the universal sand strength testing
pressure reading on the manometer has been recorded
machine
and the permeability values were refered from standard
Green Compression Strength test is performed by placing
tables of pressure and permeability correspondance.
compression heads in their position at the universal
testing machine.The weight arm slightly raised and a H. Refractoriness determination
standard 50 mm diameter x50 mm height test specimen
The refractoriness of the silica sand is determined
inserted between the compression heads so that the face
theoretically based on the work published by D. W.
that was uppermost in the ramming operation is facing Trainer. [8] Concerning the relationship between clay
the right-hand compression head. The magnetic rider was content and refractoriness.
made resting correctly against the pusher plate. The
START button pressed. When the specimen collapses
the machine reversed and returned to zero automatically.
Reading shown on the lower edge of the magnetic ride
became recorded by reading the scale designated Green
Compression Strength.The sand became removed from
the compression heads.
During shea strength test the shear test heads placed in
the lower position in the machine, with the head having
the half round holder attached to it in the pusher arm. All
the steps of green compression test are repeated except
achange of sample holder in the machin to be changed
half round. Reading shown on the lower edge of the
magnetic ride became recorded by reading the scale
designated Green shear Strength.
For the dry compression strength test the compression
heads placed in the top position of the machine. This
position increases the load applied by a factor of 5 [10].
Standard 50 mm diameter x 50 mm height test specimens
prepared in the usual way made to dry in an oven at 110
C for 2 hours. When cooled, placed in position between
test heads. The START button pressed. When the
specimen collapses the machine reversed and returned to
zero automatically. Readings on the scale designated
Dry Compression the values became recorded.

28 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

Foundry Properties of Silica Sand Deposits at Blue Nile Gorge and Jemma River Basin

III. RESULTS
Table. 2. Chemical composition (%).

Table. 3. Natural clay content.

Table. 4. Sieve test result.

Table. 5. Green permeability with 3% tempering water.

Table. 6. Bond strength with 3% tempering water.

BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1 29

 Foundry Properties of Silica Sand Deposits at Blue Nile Gorge and Jemma River Basin
V. DISCUSSION
From the chemical composition (table.1) the sio2 content
of all the sites under study is greater than 90% which
means they have greater purity which results a high
temperature resistance or refractoriness to cast all types
of metals including steel and its alloys (melting
temperature greater than 15000C). The iron oxide content
is very low so that the mould will not stick with the
molten metal during the casting of ferrous metals.
With the highest purity level of the sand deposits it is
possible to achieve the required refractoriness by
applying appropriate amount of clay, though naturally the
refractoriness of the sand deposits is lower because of
their higher percentage of clay content.
Figure 3. Chemical composition.
Figure 4. Clay content analysis
As we can see in general (fig.3) all the sands have higher
clay content greater than 10 % in average (15.2, 14.6,
15.4 and 16.6) this shows that all the sands are
approaching to saturation naturally. A clay saturated sand
is defined as one containing a high enough percentage of
clay so that any further increase in clay content will not
cause an increase in maximum green compression
strength of the aggregate. Usually 8 to 12 percent of
bentonite clay and 20 to 25 percent fire clay results a
saturated green sand aggregate. [1] But naturally these
sands dont have good refractoriness because of their
higher clay content which lowers the high temperature
resistance of the silica sand. So that this sand may be
applicable as it is for small to large castings of nonferrous
metals but the clay should be removed and a small
30 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
proportion of bentonite clay may be added for castings of
ferrous metals. It is also possible to use these sands for
no bake sand casting by removing completely the natural
clay then using a resin and catalyst in place of clay and
water.
When we see the sieve test results even though all the
sand have a 4 sieve distribution (The bulk of the sand is
retained on four adjacent screens each having more than
10% retained on it), In general the sand at all the sites
have low GFN number, (table 8) with the Blue Nile site
one comprises relatively higher, 40.89 GFN. According
to the American foundry society Standard sand is the one
with GFN of 501 with 100% through a 40-mesh sieve,
95% through the 50mesh and remaining on a 70-mesh
sieve and the balance retained on a 100-mesh sieve [1].
When we compare the sands under study they have lower
GFN number though the distribution is fair. The sand at
the Blue Nile site one can be utilized by removing the
courser part of the sand i.e. by removing meshes above
40. But the other sands are not economical to remove
coarser sands and utilized but can be mixed with finer
sands So that it is possible to get a good grain fines
number and distribution.
Figure. 5. Sieve distributions (average).
The bond strength tests (table 6) performed with
indigenous bentonite clay results a fair value. The higher
the clay content the higher is the green compression and
shear strengths. Green compression strength between 0.2
& 9.7psi are relatively lower than the standard sand
between 5 to 22 psi this is obviously due to the
coarseness nature of the base sand. Dry compression
strength between 24 and 64 psi is approaching to the
standard 22 to 250 psi, though it is in the lower range
because of lower percentage of clay content maximum of
6% applied in the test. The dry compression strength is
decreasing with an increase of clay content this is due to
the shortage of the tempering water, 3% constant, as the
clay content increases. Normally it is possible to achieve
the required bond strength by increasing the percentage
of clay content with the cost of lowering the
refractoriness and permeability of the sand. Any given
sand can reach a maximum strength by increasing the
percentage of clay after which an increase in clay content
will not increase the bond strength.
Foundry Properties of Silica Sand Deposits at Blue Nile Gorge and Jemma River Basin

Table. 7. Grain fines number calculation table.

6 BS1 BS2
n compresion strength (KN/m2)

4.5

1.5

Figure 6. Green compression strength.

70 BS1 BS2
Dry compresion strength

60 JS1 JS2
50
40
(KN/m2)

30
20
10
0
1.5 3 4.5 6
Percentage of clay content

Figure 7. Dry compression strength

BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1 31

 Foundry Properties of Silica Sand Deposits at Blue Nile Gorge and Jemma River Basin

Figure 8. Green shear strength

Figure 9. Green permeability

Ababa as raw material for chemical industry.

REFERENCES
1. Richard W. Heine, Carl R. Loper, Jr and Philip
C. Rosenthal. Principles of metal casting. 2nd Ed.
New York: McGraw-hill, 1967.
2. Aklilu Assefa and wolfram Knoth, 1992.
Geological research and evaluation for sheet
glass raw materials in Shewa and Harerge
administrative regions. Addis Ababa: Ministry of
mines. Catalogue no. 040-051-02.
3. Tibebu Mengistu and Haile Michael Fentaw,
March 2003. Geological Survey of Ethiopian
industrial minerals and rock resource potentials.
Addis Ababa: Ministry of Mines.
4. Dr. Lavrinenko Leonid, Tibebu Mengistu, et al,
1989. Evaluation of sheet glass raw materials
(silica sand, Dolomite and Calcite marble,
Feldspar at North Shoa, West Harerge and
Sidamo) , Addis Ababa: Ministry of Mines.
Catalogue no. 090-051-02.
5. Danilo Jelenc, February 1964. Silica sand
occurrences in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa: Ministry
of Mines. Catalogue no. 090-051-01.
6. Chirstopher Gerland and Bekele W/ Michael,
March 1971. Sand stone out crops near Addis
Addis Ababa: Ministry of Mines. Catalogue no.
090-451-02.
7. Nuhu A. Ademoh. Evaluation of the foundry
properties of river Niger sand behind Ajaokuta
Steel Company Limited, Ajaokuta, Nigeria.
American-Eurasian journal of Scientific Research
3(1): 75-83, 2008 ISSN 1818-6785. IDOSI
Publications, 2008.
8. George Granger Brown, Ph.D. Molding sands of
Michigan and their uses. State of Michigan
Department of conservation geological survey
division: Publication 41.Geological series 35.
Nov. 28, 1934.
9. David W. Trainer, Jr. Wisconsin geological and
natural history survey. Cornell University,
bulletin no. 69, economic series no. 23.1928.
10. Risdale and Co.limited. Foundry sand testing
equipment operating instructions (metric).
Registered office Newham hall, Newby,
Middleborough, TS 8 9EA, England registration
no: 307575.
11. Maximillian Woldenberg. Study of the chemical
and physical properties of molding sands. BSc.
Chicago: Armour institute of technology, 1906.

32 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

Foundry Properties of Silica Sand Deposits at Blue Nile Gorge and Jemma River Basin

12. Belayneh Birhanu. Preparation of Ethiopian

standard sand for the purpose of construction and
testing. M.SC. thesis, Addis Ababa University,
September 2005.
13. C.W. Ammen. The complete hand book of sand
casting. New York: TAB Books Division of
McGraw-Hill, Inc, 1979.
14. Matthew Sunday Abolarin, Sunday Albert Lawal
and AbdulRahman Asipita Salawu. Effect of
Moisture Content on the Molding Properties of
River Niger Sand Using Tudun-Wada Clay as a
Binder. Nigeria: technical report, Jan 2010. AU
J.T. 13(3): 170-174.
15. Tadele, H., (1996): Assessment of sheet glass and
ceramic row materials in tigray region. Addis
Ababa: Ministry of Mines.
16. Sand casting: Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia,
Viewed January 2012. Available from:
Http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sand_casting
17. Bentonite in Ethiopia: Ministry of mines, Viewed
December 2012. Available from:
Http://www.gse.gov.et.

BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1 33

 Industry Based Skill Standards and Their Role for Enterprise Productivity

Industry Based Skill Standards and Their Role for

Enterprise Productivity
(A Case Study on Ethiopian Footwear Manufacturing)
Sisay Geremew Gebeyehu1 Tirufat Dejene Woldeyes2
1
School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Bahir Dar University, Institute of Technology, P.O.Box 26,
Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, web: www.bdu.edu.et, Email sisayg78@yahoo.com
2
School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Bahir Dar University, Institute of Technology, P.O.Box 26,
Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, web: www.bdu.edu.et, Email terrydejene@gmail.com

Abstract The overall aim of this research paper is investigating the role of industry based
standards and its impact on the overall productivity of footwear manufacturing enterprises
(specifically by looking on the matching of the real working setups and standards required in the
development of skills). It is intended to provide a specific look at how industry based skill standards
should be translated in to the development of industry skills by developing models to show how such
standards can be developed for the footwear manufacturing sub-sector. It starts by surveying the
overall employee profiles of the sub sector, identify workplace performance indicators and evaluate
them for different groups using appropriate tools. Performance data was obtained on 30 clickers and
45 stitching operators from Anbessa Shoe Share Company to analyze their performance at the shop
floor level and check if there is an association between workplace performance and place of skill
accumulation. The data obtained was based on some key performance indicators in the two selected
sections of the leather footwear manufacturing process; namely the clicking or cutting department and
the closing or stitching section. Moreover, individual jobs of the selected operation were analyzed
functionally and employees views were also incorporated for selected job positions. Finally, based on
the results of the performance evaluation and the job analysis, a generic model of developing industry
based skill standards was developed.
Key Words - Skill standards, Enterprise productivity, Industry based skills

I. INTRODUCTION an industrial system and can make a significant

Industry based standards and assessments are essential
links between workplace employment requirements and
human capital development (i.e., education and training
programs) which affect individual citizens throughout
their life span. Developing standards of a particular
occupation based on the specific requirements of the
sector or sub-sector has multidimensional benefits. From
the economic point of view, it provides the opportunity to
multiply knowledge and skills that could cost more
money and time when it is developed elsewhere for
retraining and further training and from the social point
of view it provides better access for employability as the
end users of these skills are the enterprises themselves.
In today's competitive, global and constantly evolving
economy, there is little doubt that knowledge and skills
continue to play a defining role in shaping a nations
economic prosperity and sustainability (Watt and
Gagnon, 2005). Skills are the backbone of a successful
economy and a measure of a nations ability to survive in
a global market place 1. Skill standards are performance
specifications which identify the knowledge, skills and
abilities that an individual needs to succeed in the
workplace (Hardcastle and Bailey, 2009). Industry-based
skill standards are believed to be a crucial component of
1
Alison Coleman, Philip Hunter and Jane Simms, A Directors
GuideSkills: Transforming BusinessTowards a Better and
More Competitive Workforce (London: Director Publications
Ltd, 2004), p. 5.
contribution to improve both workplace education and
work. These standards describe work performance,
employee characteristics and communicate the formula
for productivity and job success.
To develop and implement effective and efficient skill
standards for a specific sector, it is important to see the
overall situation of the existing workforce and
organizational performance with respect to the general
human resource development framework of the country
and organizational goals.
Looking special to the leather footwear manufacturing
sector, presently, Ethiopias leather industry is in the
forefront of the leather sector development within the
Eastern and Southern Africa region. In a recent policy
document, the Ethiopian government has clearly realised
the opportunities offered by globalisation: one of the
eight major policy tasks identified is:
Rapid export growth through production of high value
agricultural products and increased support to export
oriented manufacturing sectors particularly intensified
processing of high quality skins/leather and textile
garment (Ministry of Finance and Economic
Development of Ethiopia, MoFED 2002.i).
In addition the Ethiopian government has a new plan:
the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP), which is to
succeed the previous Plan for Accelerated and Sustained
Development to End Poverty (PASDEP). The new plan is
ambitious: it assumes real growth of GDP of a minimum
of 11 percent per annum over the period 2010/11 to

34 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

 Industry Based Skill Standards and Their Role for Enterprise Productivity
2014/15, with a best case target of doubling the size of
the Ethiopian economy over that period, which would
require annual GDP growth of 14.9 percent (Ciuriak and
Preville 2010 pp.2). The sectorial focus of the plan in
terms of manufacturing is on sectors that are labor
intensive, use agricultural products as inputs, help
achieve technology transfer and are either export oriented
with significant export potential or import substituting.
With this regard leather and leather products sector is the
first priority found to be short listed in the Growth and
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Human resources are an important factor in the
development of the manufacturing industry and therefore
understanding the contribution of the workforce skills to
the industrys productivity performance is crucial (Bailey
and Merritt, 1997). Human capital represents an asset
with the capacity to enhance productivity, innovation and
employability 2. This is a requirement for informing
targeted actions that would induce productivity gains to
the industry. Mohamed et.al (2005), point out that in a
survey of the existing literature relating to skills and
productivity reveals common themes namely: 1)
Logistics and late material delivery, 2) Workforce skills,
3) Labor training, and 4) Education attainment
(qualification levels). It is concluded, at best, that the
existing evidence linking skills and productivity is patchy
and inconsistent without providing clear guidelines as to
how skills development could generate productivity gains
at the firm level. The human resource capacity of any
workplace, when properly managed, maintained and
utilized, is often one of the biggest and greatest
competitive advantages that an employer has (Watt and
Gagnon, 2005). However, Watt and Gagnon argued that
both employers and individuals require clear evidence of
a significant payback. Employers need to know how
much their employees learning is linked to better
business performance such as increased profits and other
bottom-line benefits. Establishing industry-based skill
standards is essential to ensure that employers understand
what knowledge and skills are needed for present and
future success; to focus the attention of educators and
corporate training organizations on industry
requirements; and to signal students and employees what
knowledge, skills, and abilities will be valued and
rewarded in the workplace 3.
The direct relationship between industry based skill
standards and productivity of employees can be
explained in two ways. On one hand, appropriate
recognition of skills developed at workplace provides the
feeling of owning a particular skill when one gets the
necessary certification for the competence that he/she
2
Growth in the quality of labor input in Canada accounted for
25 per cent of the overall growth in GDP per capita over a
thirty-five year period (1960 1995). Source: Dale Jorgenson
and Eric Yip, Whatever Happened to Productivity Growth?
Harvard University, (June 28, 1998), pp. 13-16, 42-49.
3
James D. Burge National Skill Standards Board Corporate
Vice President, Motorola, State of Washington through the
State Board of Community and Technical Colleges, 1998
BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
Transformation Plan. This by itself is sufficient to merit
the study of the leather footwear manufacturing sector in
Ethiopia from different perspectives.
The highly labor intensive nature of the Ethiopian
footwear industry which needs relatively less
sophisticated technological requirements, combined with
Ethiopias large resource base for leather makes the sub-
sector a good candidate for a concerted effort to expand
production and achieve competitiveness at the
international level.
has. This in turn adds on workplace motivation and
enhances the employee performance. On the other hand,
accumulation of skills based on specified standards will
enable employees to further develop it to the next higher
stage by capacitating themselves to more advanced level
work place skills. The direct economic benefits realized
by employers, through workplace learning, include
increased output of products and services, reduced time
per task, reduced error rates, a better health and safety
record, reduced waste in production of goods and
services, increased customer retention and increased
employee retention. Workplace learning also has the
potential to produce a variety of indirect economic
benefits such as improved quality of work, better team
performance, improved capacity to cope with change in
the workplace and improved capacity to use new
technologies. These indirect economic benefits, although
less tangible and more difficult to measure precisely than
the direct benefits, have an important impact on
organizational performance (Watt and Gagnon, 2005).
From a business point of view, industry based skills are
positive ways to accumulate talent. They raise the overall
standard within industry and are an investment into
achieving a positive and strong sector.
OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH
Generally the objective of this research is to investigate
the role of industry based skill standards and its impact
on the overall productivity of footwear manufacturing
enterprises with special looking to matching of real
working setups and standards required in the
development of skills. As there is no much work done in
this specific area, the research intends to base on primary
sources of data and develop model industry based skill
standard development model for a selected occupation in
the footwear manufacturing process. Specifically the
objectives of the research are:-
To assess technical workforce productivity from the
context of work/job standards
To define and work out the level of competences
requirements of the sub-sector
To define the scope of the occupation or skills set
and establish a simplified model for developing
appropriate industry based skill standards by
describing the skills and knowledge needed to
perform competently in the workplace on selected
jobs of the subsector
To find enterprise policy options of fitting work
process standards and product/process requirements
35
 Industry Based Skill Standards and Their Role for Enterprise Productivity

conclusions and make the foundation of further

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY developments.

Leather footwear manufacturing firms in Addis Ababa, III. ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION
the capital city of Ethiopia, were selected for GENERAL
investigation due to the concentration of more than 98%
of such enterprises. As a result, it was relatively easy for Although the establishment of the Ethiopian leather
the researchers to obtain sufficient information and data sector dates back to the 1920s, the main leather-related
to be used for this study. Whilst it would have given export item of Ethiopia is, however, still low value-added
much more relaxed data set to survey the entire target hides and skins. In recent times the Ethiopian
universe of the leather footwear manufacturing government is exerting efforts from all directions and
enterprises in Ethiopia, there are some practical along the value chain to shift the major export items from
considerations that forced us to exclude certain portions the low value-added hides/skins to high value-added
due to tangible reasons. Inaccessibility, surveying costs finished leather and leather products. The enterprise
and nature and importance of the omitted companies are diversification of Ethiopian leather footwear
some of the reasons for the exclusion of them from the manufacturing subsector ranges from big shoe
target universe. After excluding these enterprises from manufacturing companies with an average capacity of
the target universe, the survey universe covers 7 footwear producing over 4000 pairs of shoes per day and that
manufacturing enterprises. This comprises of 76% (in accommodates more than 600 employees to a micro level
terms of numbers) of the total number of footwear enterprises that produce leather shoes at a family level.
manufacturing enterprises in the whole country. The size Some of the enterprises are specialized in producing one
of the 7 selected enterprises were ranging from large ones or two types of leather shoes while others produce a
with an employment number greater than 600 and a total range of products in different production lines.
capacity of producing 750,000 pairs of shoes per year to The production levels of these industries between
medium enterprises with a total number of employees not 2001/02 and 2005/06 were on average 1.04 million pairs
more than 150 and their yearly capacity less than 78,000 of leather shoes and boots, and around 700,000 square
pairs of shoes. meters of leather upper and linings per annum (Loop
For conducting this empirical research, the researchers 2003 pp.14). The annual installed production capacities
adopted both approaches of quantitative (questionnaire of the major footwear enterprises are given in the
surveys) and qualitative investigations (structured following tables.
interviews, and case studies). Assuming a total working days per annum to be 275
Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the research,
(50 working weeks x 5.5 working days per week), the
combinations of research techniques and tools have been
annual installed capacity of these footwear enterprises
used. However, the major part of the work has been done
can be calculated as 3,753,750 pairs of shoes. But the
in the selected case enterprises. Finally both parametric
and non-parametric statistical tests were used to check actual yearly production remains below 50% of the
associations between different variables. Besides, actual installed capacity.
job analysis and performance data were used to draw
Table 1 Installed capacity and capacity utilization of leather footwear firms
Company Installed Capacity Actual output
(Pairs per day) (Pairs per day)
Tikur Abay Shoe S.Co. 4000 3000
Anbessa Shoe S.Co 3000 1700
Kangaroo Shoe Factory 3000 1200
Gelila Shoe Factory 1200 800
Peacock Shoe Factory 3000 2000
Ras Dashen Shoe Factory 1000 500
Gamb Shoe Factory 1000 500
OK Jamaica Shoe Factory 1200 1000
Wallia Shoe Factory 3000 1500
Melese Teka Shoe Factory 2000 1200
Ramsey Shoe Factory 2000 1500
Total 24,400 Pairs 14,900 pairs

Source: United Nations Industrial Development Organization -UNIDO and (Ethiopian) Ministry of Trade and
Industry- MoTI, 2005

A. Employment

36 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

 Industry Based Skill Standards and Their Role for Enterprise Productivity
It is not quite easy to know the exact estimate of
employment generated by the Ethiopian leather product
manufacturing sector as the numbers of self employed in
the area are not clearly known. Only in the footwear
subsector, there are more than 600 SMEs producing shoe
for the local market. The employment generation of the
large and medium leather footwear manufacturing firms
is by far lower than the self-employment created
especially when the cottage/handcraft shops are
considered. However, it takes the lions share when one
considers the employment generated by the footwear
enterprises compared to other leather product
manufacturing enterprises even though the employment
generated is still below expectation in the large and
medium firms. From the total employment generated by
the leather and leather product sector, the leather
footwear manufacturing subsector accounts below 50%,
which can be translated as less than 4,000 employees.
B. Industry Based Skills
Industry based skills are the basic and major components
of the Ethiopian manufacturing sector in general. It has
been the main source of skill accumulation for many of
the unprofessional workers in the sector. Even though
tangible evidences are not found as to how much percent
of the manufacturing workforce is dependent on industry
based skills, it can be argued that a considerable
proportion of these workforce relies on such skilled
gained from industry experience. Looking special to the
leather footwear manufacturing sub-sector provides more
tangible evidence about the proportion of manpower used
in the manufacturing process.
According to a survey made in this research, it has been
found that over 75% of the shop floor workforce has
gained the skill for the current job from the industry
itself. This is however doesnt mean that these job
holders have no any educational background. Most of
them are high school graduates from which they can get
some background skills in communication and simple
arithmetical operations. But the skill for making the shoe
Only a few proportions of shoe and leather goods
workers learn their skills through formal training
programs. Formal training programs take up to three
BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
or parts of the shoe is a result of on the job training in a
couple of weeks time within the industry itself.
Employers tend to prefer to hire employees with such
hands on skills than the formally trained and certified
graduates of TVET colleges or training centers.
C. Employee Profiles
It has been estimated that over 5000 people are engaged
permanently only in the medium and large leather
product manufacturing enterprises. This figure is
relatively insignificant when the numbers of individuals
engaged in the informal sector are considered. Though
there had not been a formal survey made as to how many
people are working in the informal sector
(cottage/handcraft leather product makers), the estimated
amount exceeds 10, 000 individuals (Heinze, 2008). It is
however clear that the present contribution of the sub-
sector to the national employment figures is significant
enough when one considers lately emerging stage of the
leather product manufacturing sub-sector.
The employee profile of the leather footwear industries is
characterized by a small proportion of professionals
taking the supervision and decision making roles and the
vast majority comprises nonprofessional workers
engaged in the direct manufacturing activities. The
distribution of workforce across major function is
provided in the table below:
Table 2 Distribution of employees across various
functions in leather footwear manufacturing enterprises
Function Percentage of workers
involved
Manufacturing/Production 85-90%
Designing & Sampling 1-2%
Sales 2-3%
Other supporting functions 2-5%
(Finance, HR etc)
Total 100
years to complete. The majority of them (more than 75
%) take short-term on-the-job training (less than 6
months).
Most shoe manufacturing workers learn their skills on
the job from an experienced leather worker. Most begin
as a helper and do simple tasks such as staining leather,
brush and shine shoes. As they get more experience, they
learn how to cut, stitch and lasting operations of shoes
and other items. On-the-job training may last up to a year
(a few months is most common). When the field of
specialization is considered still more than 75 % of the
production workforces have not taken education related
to the leather product manufacturing. Over 31% of them
have got some kind of education in other fields and more
than 43% of them have not studied any particular field at
all.
As can be seen from the table 3 from the sample of 292
employees taken randomly from the 16 leather product
37
 Industry Based Skill Standards and Their Role for Enterprise Productivity
manufacturing enterprises, only less than 20% of the
production workers have education level above diploma
in different fields of education and training. The rest,
more than 80% of them either have a higher or lower
certificate or they are below that. The table below shows
the employee educational profiles of the sub-sector
engaged on the direct manufacturing process generated
from the survey questionnaire.
Wages and salaries of employees in the sub-sector vary
by type of enterprise and the worker's level of skill. In
addition, wages are affected by the type of the products
that workers produce. Except professionally trained
workers in the leather product manufacturing sub-sector
wages range between 1.5 and 2.0 USD per day. In
general, shoe and leather product workers earn more by
engaging themselves in their own private business
instead of being employees in a factory. Self-employed
shop owners pay more than 200 % of the wages paid in
the enterprises. Shoe and leather goods workers who are
not self-employed and work full time in the leather
product manufacturing firms do not receive any benefit
including sick leave, paid vacation, and health insurance.
As a result formally trained skilled workers often prefer
to work for themselves by establishing a leather craft
shop in the informal sector. Whereas enterprises relay on
informally on-job trained manpower which is not
sustainable and not qualified with state of the art know
how.
In a typical work setting, people in this sector have a
medium level of social interaction. They spend time
alone working on products and are most of the time
responsible for the work done by themselves not by other
workers and assistants. They occasionally work as part of
a group. The physical work conditions are characterized
as always indoor works by sharing work spaces with
other workers. They need to repeat the same physical
activities over and over while remaining alert and
interested in doing a good job and may work longer hours
during busy times to meet orders. Most tasks in this sub-
sector frequently use hands to handle, control, or feel
objects, tools, or controls, stand at workbenches for part
of the day and repeat the same motions. However,
because most of the operations in the leather product
production are sequential the work performance of
employees is measured as a line performance not as
individual performance. On the other hand due to
marketing problems and the corresponding extended
times and fluctuations in trade over a working week and
year, both the sub-sector enterprises relied heavily on
part-time and temporary workers although some
especially the public enterprises preferred to use full-time
mature staff.
D. Workforce Performance Analysis
The main focus of this section is to analyze the
employee (labor) productivity of the Ethiopian leather
footwear manufacturing firms by identifying the key
performance indicators. Though it is clear that any
38 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
manufacturing process is a complex, adaptive and on-
going social system, the research concentrates only on
the job-related performance analysis. Thus, productivity
in this sense is the degree to which the shop-floor
employees apply themselves to their work and the extent
to which the application of their effort brings the desired
results in output and quality.
For this particular case because of the lack of
structured data showing employee performance
evaluation results, physical measures of performance
were employed. This has indeed limitations as the
measurement is not recorded continuously to generate
certain data trends. However, in a sector like this where
the use of scientific methods of performance evaluation is
very unusual, the physical measures of productivity may
tell some indications. For example in the cutting section
of footwear manufacturing process, the average number
of cut components per cutter per day is used as a standard
measure of performance. As a result time is used as the
major denominator in determining the performance of
technical workforce. Other aspects of performance refer
to the qualitative, rather than quantitative, dimensions of
labor input.
For leather cutting operations measuring individual
worker performance is easy as one individual performs
all types of operations to finish the end product (cut
component). As a result secondary time data was taken
from the cutting department and verified by direct time
measurement to check its reliability to draw conclusions.
The leather shoe upper stitching on the other hand
involves multi-operations and passes through many hands
until the end product is obtained. Firstly, the number of
parts to be assembled together is many and needs
different types of skills, tools and equipment; secondly
the rate at which different operators perform on a
particular item or part greatly varies depending on
different factors like personal skill, working situation,
and type of operation. Hence for such operations
measuring individual performance on a quantitative base
using direct time measurement is very complex and is
beyond the scope of this research. Therefore,
performance data measured on a rating scale was used to
make a comparison between research variables.
The data obtained was based on some key performance
indicators in the two selected sections of the leather
footwear manufacturing process; namely the clicking or
cutting department and the closing or stitching section.
While the number strokes per unit time and the overall
material utilization or accuracy of cut are the key
performance indicators for a clicker, work piece delivery
rate and stitch quality are used as the key performance
indicators for a stitching operator.
The purpose of the employee performance analysis in
this research is basically to answer the basic research
hypothesis that tests weather there is a link between work
place performance and process of skill acquisition (i.e
whether there is much difference in actual performance
when one gets a formal school base training and an
industry based training) and how actual work experience
 Industry Based Skill Standards and Their Role for Enterprise Productivity

on the job adds on overall performance on the work
place. In other words we wanted to see if whether or not
employees performance is related to whether or not they
attend training at schools or in industry. Performance
data was obtained on 30 clickers and 45 stitching
operators from Anbessa Shoe S.Co to analyze operators
performance at the shop floor level. As the data has
different nature as stated above we use different
statistical tools to analyze. While an independent t-test or
student's t-test (which is an inferential statistical test that
determines whether there is a statistically significant
difference between the means in two unrelated groups) is
used to test clickers performance against their training
base, Chi Square test was used to see if there is a
significant association between stitching operators
performance and their training base.
In case of clickers performance data, inspection of Q-
Q Plots (Fig. 1) revealed that clicker performance was
normally distributed for both groups (Industry based
skills and School based skills) and that there was
homogeneity of variance as assessed by Levene's Test for
Equality of Variances. Therefore, an independent t-test
was run on the data as well as 95% confidence intervals
(CI) for the mean difference. It was found that
performance for industry based group (66.9 7.7%) were
significantly higher than the school based group (59.6
4.5%) (t(28) = 1.538, p = 0.0103) as shown in table 4
below.

Figure 1 Normal Q-Q plot of Clickers performance data

Table 1 Independent t-test for clickers performance

Levene's Test
for Equality of t-test for Equality of Means
Variances
95% Confidence Interval
Sig. (2- Mean Std. Error of the Difference
F Sig. t df
tailed) Difference Difference
Lower Upper
Equal variances
2.838 .0103 1.538 28 .135 7.301 4.747 -2.422 17.025
Clickers assumed
Performance Equal variances
1.796 27.897 .083 7.301 4.066 -1.029 15.631
not assumed

BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1 39

 Industry Based Skill Standards and Their Role for Enterprise Productivity

Table 5 Pearsons product-moment correlation for Clickers work

experience and their overall performance

Clicker's Work
Performanc experience of
e the Clickers
Pearson
1 .452*
Clicker's Correlation
Performance Sig. (2-tailed) .012
N 30 30
Pearson
Work .452* 1
Correlation
experience of
Sig. (2-tailed) .012
the Clickers
N 30 30
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Table 6 Spearmans correlation between stitching operators performance and their work
experience

Overall stitching Work experience

Performance of the stitches
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .315*
Overall stitching
Sig. (2-tailed) . .042
Performance
Spearman's N 42 42
rho Correlation Coefficient .315 *
1.000
Work experience of
On the Sig. (2-tailed) .042 .
the stitchers Productivi
other hand N 42 42 ty factors
a Pearson analysis
product- results
moment correlation was run to determine the relationship also showed that three out of the top five major factors
between clickers work experience and their overall that founds to be a critical cause of low productivity are
performance on the job (cutting operation). The data related to company management practices in the
showed no violation of normality, linearity or enterprises. This includes the overall company policy
homoscedasticity. There was a moderate, positive which is the second top factor. This is of course a broad
correlation between work experience and overall concept as most company policies and rules are strategic
performance, which was statistically significant (r = .452, issues that cannot be altered in short term time intervals.
n = 30, p =.012 < .05) as can be seen in table 6. Management practices directly related to the working
manpower may include recruitment policies, insurance
A Likert scale containing four stage rating that policies, hire and fire polices, pay and incentive systems,
rates performance of the 45 stitching operators from poor retirement policies, skill development or training policies
( low level performance) to excellent ( high degree of and so on. Therefore, good management which is
performance) has been used to see the association responsible for the development and recognition of the
between overall performance with different variables. For main components of human resource related issues in
the these category a Spearman's correlation was run to enterprise is crucial to the effectiveness of existing and
determine if shoe upper stitchers (sewing operators in potential employees. With this respect the recognition of
the closing department) work experience has close industry based skills for unprofessional employees is one
relationship with their overall performance on the job of the motivating factors. Even though, in recent trends,
(sewing operation). The result also show the existence of many organizations have already shifted their thinking
relatively weak, positive correlation between work about the training function, industry based skills are
experience and overall performance, which was given less attention in terms of their recognition and
statistically significant ( = .315, n = 42, p = .042) as can standard.
be seen in table 4.6. The test result suggests that whether
a technical workforce performs good or bad at work is
partially influenced by the number of years the worker
spend at the same work.

40 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

 Industry Based Skill Standards and Their Role for Enterprise Productivity
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results of employee performance analysis prove
that whether an individual acquires work related skills in
school based training or industry based training has no
relation with his/ her actual performance on the job. This
will in turn support the idea of developing industry based
skill standards as far as the skill acquisition through
industry based practices work equivalently with the
school based developed skill. However, the number of
years that an individual stays on a certain particular job
has a positive relation with the actual performance of the
individual. It has been known from the survey that much
of the effort on skills development for the leather
footwear sub-sector has focused on general education and
its extension, technical and vocational education. But in
actual sense much of the skills are mastered in the
industry itself. Therefore, the findings of the employee
performance analysis suggest that attention is also
required to be given to other forms of skills development
ranging from apprenticeships and enterprise training to
skills development taking place outside the workplace in
non-formal training provided by other bodies.
Moreover, the results of the productivity factor
analysis indicate that productivity is highly influenced by
dissatisfying factors which include inappropriate pay and
other incentives as a result of not recognizing industry
based skills and the lack of trust on job ownership due to
lack of appropriate certification systems for ones
acquired skills. Further-more, the results are in favor of
industry based skills would work if not more as
traditionally certified school based skills with is more or
less principle oriented.
To further analyze the validity of these results, findings
from the research survey and interview panel discussions
were compared with the documented productivity related
issues from the literature (Rago 1983, Dowling and
Sayles 1978, Prokopenko 1990). As per the findings
discussed above, the leading cause of low productivity in
the Ethiopian leather footwear manufacturing sub-sector
found to be inadequate employee reward system.
Dowlling and Sayles (1978) explained the importance of
employee motivation and reward systems for increasing
their productivity as the problem of job expectation
and satisfaction are important to even the most hard-
boiled managers because, management pays a heavy
price for dissatisfying work- friction on the job,
substandard output and quality, high turnover,
absenteeism are some of the many indicators of lack of
proper motivation and incentive systems in a typical
working environment.
Modern management theories tell us that one of the
greatest rewarding systems to enhance the performance
and/or productivity of non-professional workers in
manufacturing in general is empowerment and
recognition.
BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
The traditional way of motivating employees by
temporary pay systems is usually a short term solution to
increase HR productivity. A more profound source of
motivation factor for unprofessional workforce would be
the recognition of the skills the accumulate through their
long time experience on the work place as such
recognition will pave the way for their future career and
provide them the guarantee to own a certain skill by some
sort of certification. On the international arena, the issue
of skills recognition and qualifications reform has been a
major theme of international debates on education and
training strategy. In many countries the systems limited
capacity in recognizing non-formal and informal learning
is also an obstacle to improving access to, and
inclusiveness of, the qualification system (ILO, 2007).
One of the major development constraints in the
Ethiopian leather footwear manufacturing sub-sector is
thus the absence of modern industry based skill standards
to the mutual recognition of workers skills. When there
is no framework or standards to facilitate recognition of
skills across enterprises, the problem will be compounded
for employees than employers and leads to loss of
motivation at work. Thus, developing industry based
standards of a particular occupation based on the specific
requirements of the sector or sub-sector has
multidimensional benefits. From the economic point of
view, it provides the opportunity to multiply knowledge
and skills that could cost more money and time when it is
developed elsewhere for retraining and further training
and from the social point of view it provides better access
for employability as the end users of these skills are the
enterprises themselves. On the other hand, skills
standards function as a quality-warranty, a goal-indicator,
and a change-promoter as industry based systems of
standards can coexist comfortably with the traditional
organization of work and educational structures.
Industry Based Skill Standard Development Model
Models of skill standards are of two types depending
on their purpose; the skill component model and the
professional model (Merritt 1996). Whereas the later
assumes that workers have the ability to apply general
knowledge to a variety of non-routine circumstances or
situations (Wolfson, Trebilcock, and Tuohy 1980), the
skill components model, which is the main focus of this
research, is based on the limited, passive roles that
workers are expected to assume in traditional hierarchical
organizations, the narrow skills that define them,
employees perform a series of rote functions that have
been explicitly established for them. Since workers are
not expected to make complex independent decisions, the
conceptual skills that could be used as a basis for making
those decisions are not considered necessary. Hence
using a combination of worker-oriented and job-oriented
job analysis skill standards can be developed. This type
of job analysis informs the development of skill standards
by identifying the key KSAs of job incumbents need to
perform the tasks of a job (Brannick, et.al 2007).
41
 Industry Based Skill Standards and Their Role for Enterprise Productivity

The conception of skill is this industry based skill focus in the industry based skill standards is that it is
standards development model roots from the fact that the assumed that these skills are learned prior to specific
effectiveness of a worker can be characterized by how vocational skills and are useful to the extent that they
well the worker carries out a list of individual tasks. help workers master the required list of tasks. They are
Hence it is reasonable that the main focus of the standard employability skills required by all workers in order to
development model be on the vocational tasks of leather obtain meaningful work and participate in the modern
shoe manufacturing when one considers the routine workforce. However, they are not intended to be included
nature of the manufacturing work processes. Moreover a separate entity for the development of industry based
the process of developing skill standards and their skill standards as they are not the results of industry
certification has to be based on certain key performance based skills. Here, workers are trained to perform tasks
indicators which are specific behavioural evidence of a that are defined by their supervisors, but they are not
workers achievement of skills, knowledge, and task expected to know when to do them, how they fit into
completion. This is because it is only these indicators that related tasks, how they relate to a final product, or how
can provide the standard of performance required to they can be improved or applied to different situations
produce the necessary outcomes of key activities. (Bailey 1989). Hence the mastery and internalization of
Hence the model has to indicate the ccritical work technical, methodological, social and personal skills is
functions, represent the general areas of responsibility for the core of the standard which enables the job holder to
the front-line worker in leather footwear manufacturing develop workplace competences as shown in Figure 2.
and these functions will tell us what must be done to
achieve the key purpose of the occupation or job. One
possible explanation for the generally weak academic
Figure 2 Conceptual model of industry based skill standards development

Development of set of workplace

Vocational expertise for

Technical
Identification of performance

Skills

Standard skills
competences
The mastery
Methodica and
internalization of
Indicators

l
Skills these varied
skills result in
Social
Skills

Personal
Skills

The model is developed based on the actual fact that
employers in the Ethiopian leather footwear
manufacturing enterprises are not really interested in
broadening the role of workers either in their decision
making or their problem solving processes. Rather their
main focus is on the efficiency and effectiveness of pre-
defined manufacturing operations with a close
supervision of line supervisors. Therefore, with the
industry based skill standards set and more autonomy
involved with a job, workforce productivity can be
enhanced. The closer a firm or industry moves towards
an industry based skill standard, the more important it
will be to integrate workers into the performance
increment process.

42 BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1

 Industry Based Skill Standards and Their Role for Enterprise Productivity
V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Improving the job skills of the work force has been a
cornerstone of economic development theory and
practice and has received more international assistance
than any other form or level of education. While the role
of industry based skill standards for productivity
improvement can be explained in a variety of ways, the
focus of this research was on how it could add on the
overall enterprise productivity. By developing standards
with a specific sectorial industry, it can be used as a
means of workforce retention in the sector. As can be
seen from employee demographic survey of this research,
the majority of the leather footwear enterprises are using
employment policies based on temporary business goals.
Technical workforce productivity in the footwear
manufacturing sub-sector is much below the standard in
the eyes of international and scientific practices. The
leather sector in general, particularly the footwear, has
been running under intensive government support to cope
with the international market. To supplement the
expertise skill gaps international experts have been the
major inputs to enhance product quality and increase
productivity.
In this connection it is important to consider the role of
workplace skill recognition, training, work organization,
working condition in the effective development of
manpower as the key to productivity improvement. Thus
industry based competency standards are attained through
programs that respect the knowledge that workers already
possess; develops a collective knowledge through
sharing; generates new knowledge from the workplace;
and encourages critical analysis.
Finally, although we have suggested that the skill
component model for the development of industry based
skill standards as a result of the present situation in the
enterprises it is also equally important to move towards
the professional model as the sub-sector grows.
REFERENCES
1. Ciuriak , D., & Preville, C. (2010). Ethiopias
Trade and Investment:Policy Priorities for the
New Government. Management Priorities of the
BiT Research Bulletin Volume 1; Issue 1
Newly re-elected Ethiopian Government (pp. 1-
16). Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Ethiopian
Management Professionals Association
(EMPA).
2. Dowling , W., & Sayles, L. (1978). How
managers Motivate; The imperatives of
supervision. McGraw-Hill Book company.
3. Ministry of Fainance and Economic
Development of Ethiopia, MoFED. (2002).
Ethiopia: Sustainable Development and Poverty
Reduction Program. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:
Ministry of Fainance and Economic
Development-Ethiopia (MoFED).
4. Brannick, M., Levine , E., & Morgeson, F.
(2007). Job and Work Analysis: Methods,
Research, and Applications for Human
Resource Management (2nd ed.). SAGE
Publications, Inc,.
5. J.Rago, L. (1983). Production analysis and
control. International textbook company.
6. Kothari, C. (2004). Research Methodology:
Methods and Techniques (2nd ed.). New Delhi:
New Age International (P) Ltd.
7. Loop, V. (2003). Industrialization, Value
Chains and Linkages; The LeatherFootwear
Sector in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia: Addis Ababa University Press.
8. Prokopenko, J. (1990). Productivity
management: a practical handbook. Oxford and
IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd.
9. Bailey , T., & Merritt, D. (1997). Industry Skill
Standards and Education Reform. American
Journal of Education, 105(4), 401-436.
10. Merritt, D. (1996, November 11). A Conceptual
Framework for Industry-Based Skill Standards.
Retrieved Novemeber 07, 2012, from National
Center for Research in Vocational Education:
http://vocserve.berkeley.edu/centerfocus/CF11.h
tml
11. Merritt, T. B. (1997). Industry Skill
Standards and Education Reform. CHICAGO
JOURNAL, 408-413.
43
This page has been left intentionally.