Kigho Moses Oghenejoboh
Delta State University, NIGERIA
Title: Application of Agro-Wastes in the Treatment and Conversion of Industrial Wastes for Effective Waste Management: Chemical Engineering Perspective
Biography
Biography: Kigho Moses Oghenejoboh
Abstract
Effective waste management require a multidisciplinary approach with Chemical Engineering as the fulcrum. The problem of sustainable waste management is as old as creation itself, for the creator of the universe put ecological cycle in place to effectively manage waste generated in the universe either through recycling or conversion into useful products. It can rightly be said then, that the Almighty God started the profession of Chemical Engineering. However, over the years, man had succeeded in destroying this perfect system put in place by God either through greedy manipulation of the system or out of ignorance. Over the past decades, Chemical Engineers in collaboration with Biotechnologists and Environmentalists have been working tirelessly to see how wastes generated from various industrial processes including the agro-based industries can be used sustainably in the treatment of industrial wastewater, generate energy or converted to useful chemical products. Agricultural wastes are unwanted materials produced from agricultural processes like growing of crops or raising of animals. One area of great success is the use of agricultural crops waste as polymerized biochar for the adsorption of lethal heavy metals from wastewater. In tropical Africa like Nigeria, an important agricultural product that generates a lot of waste is cassava, a vital staple delicacy. The leaves, peels, stems and wastewater from the processing of this agricultural product poses great environmental nuisance. However, the leaves, peels and stems are currently being put to economic use either as animal feed or as biomass for wastewater treatment. Research is presently on-going in the utilization of the large volume of wastewater generated from cassava processing for the cultivation of microalgae. In this review, the potential of cassava wastewater in growing microalgae for algae crude production is enumerated. The economic benefit of the venture as a supplement to Nigeria’s dwindling fossil fuel reserve as well as its positive impact on environmental sustainability are discussed