One-pot synthesis of highly substituted pyridines has been demonstrated via multicomponent reaction of aldehydes, malononitrile and thiophenol using Mg-Al hydrotalcite as a solid base and reusable catalyst. The catalytic activity is intimately connected to the basicity of the catalyst. The best activities were observed with the Mg/Al: 5 catalyst. The catalyst could be reused for further run without a significant loss in activity. The protocol was also applicable for various aromatic aldehydes which affords desired product in good to excellent yield.

Transportation is one of the most important functions of logistics management because of its impact on both the level of customer service provision and the organization’s cost structure. The study explores the transportation cost optimization strategies and how they affect the supply chain performance of Shea nuts in the Agro-processing industries in Ghana. The quantitative study design was adopted and utilized to solicit data. With a sample size of 204 respondents. Data was analyzed using multiple linear regression in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS v20). The results revealed interesting findings in the supply chain within the institution as it seeks to assert that transportation is seen to be effective and contribute highly to firms output when Agro companies use outsourcing and pooling as means of transport. From the results, the supply chain correlated positively and significantly with outsourcing and pooling as transport optimization practices in Agro firms supply chain. This paper adds to the existing literature on the supply chain systems of Agro processing firms but departs from previous studies which seek to concentrate not on the transport optimization of the Agro processing firms but rather on the challenges, production, and profit maximization of these firms. Our study is unique unlike any otheIn this research, a heterogeneous tricomposite catalyst was developed to facilitate biodiesel synthesis reaction. The Musa ABB (Kachkal) banana trunk was explored as the biowaste for the preparation of the catalyst. The trunk of the plant was cut into pieces, dried and burnt into ashes, and underwent heat treatment at 550 ℃ for 2 h. The calcined trunk was treated with potassium carbonate and CuO and the final composite was named a calcined banana trunk-K2CO3-CuO (CTKC) catalyst. The CTKC catalyst was employed in the production of rice bran pongamia oil methyl ester (RPOME) from rice bran and Pongamia pinnata (RP) oil blend in 1:1 ratio. The CTKC catalyst was characterized via XRD, and FT-IR analytical tools. Similarly, FT-IR and 1H NMR were employed to examine RP oil blend and RPOME. Under the optimized condition of 7 wt.% catalyst amount, 9:1 methanol to oil molar ratio (MTOMR), and 65 ℃ reaction temperature, the highest biodiesel yield was found to be 94.07 %. The density of RPOME was found to be 0.8811 g/cm3 which fits into the specified limit of EN 14214 and the kinematic viscosity of RPOME was found to be 3.5403 mm2/s which falls under both ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 standards. In brief, the CTKC catalyst functions as an effective heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of biodiesel from a binary blend of edible oil (rice bran) and non-edible oil (Pongamia pinnata). This represents an innovative strategy to tackle the rising pollution caused by diesel and petroleum-derived from fossil fuels used in vehicles. r research previously authored as it seeks to reveal the option of transport optimization that is cost effective and efficiently productive for Agro processing firms to adopt.