CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Energy exists in different forms, all of which measure the ability of an object or system to do work on another object or system. Energy is fundamental to the survival of people, it is used in different areas of life such as; source of light and also for powering our vehicles, trains, planes, and rockets, machinery and tractor on the farm. The different forms of energy includes; electrical, fossil fuels with quite a number of availability in the form of coal, oil and natural gasses; hydro and energy, nuclear and wind energy.(www. energyquest.ca.gov,2015).
The United States of America analyses the rate of depletion done to the ozone layer as a result of wide use of fossil fuel which serves as the bulk of energy in use and discovered that the rate of depletion has greatly increased. This was due to the harmful elements released after the burning of petroleum fuels as stated by Mark,(2005).
These harmful chemical released to the atmosphere which cause changes in atmospheric condition, human health deterioration serves as point of the challenges to look into an alternative source of energy. However, increasing population and development of the third world countries caused an increased in the demand for traditional fuel which is a common type known as biomass energy.
Biomass energy is another form of renewable energy source and it is derived from living or dead organisms like plants, waste and alcohol mostly (www.renewablesolarenergy.com,2015).
The major sources of biomass include; waste materials from industrial processes, waste material from pulping industries and municipal waste. When energy is extracted from alcohol or from the fiber present in the corn, it is known as ethanol fuel. This ethanol fuel is really helpful in providing fuel to the cars and farm tractors.
Biomass energy can also be sourced from various kinds of agricultural processed refuse like polar, willow, hem, corn, miscanthus, sugar cane, spice trees, eucalyptus, switch grass and sorghum. The mentioned sources of biomass energy have one or more effect on the living organism, human and the living environment. Some of the effect which includes deforestation, competition with food materials and other industrial usage which is a result of more demand for such product, hence the need for research into a less competitive products in term of the environment and the inhabiting organism which will reduce the use of other mentioned in term of their economic and industrial demand. Hence the need for the choice of palm kernel shell and mesocarp fruit fiber.