Donald Tyoker Kukwa

By Edward Kwaku Armah, Maggie Chetty, Jeremiah Adebisi Adedeji and Donald Tyoker Kukwa

Lignocellulosic biomass has gained increasing recognition in the past decades for the production of value-added products (VAPs). Biomass feedstocks obtained from various sources, their composition, and pretreatment techniques employed for delignification into bioenergy production are discussed. The conversion processes of biomass into VAPs involve various methods. Notable among them are biochemical conversions; namely, anaerobic digestion and ethanol fermentation, and thermo-chemical conversions; namely, pyrolysis and gasification which are considered in this chapter. Microalgae can adapt to changes in the environment, producing biomass that serves as a precursor for a variety of biomolecules, such as proteins, which find their application in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and biofuel industries. Suitable strains of freshwater microalgae biomass contain high levels of lipid which can be harnessed for bioenergy production. Hence, the advancement in the conversion of biomass into VAPs could help scientists and environmentalists for sustainable use of biomass in future developments.

Part of the book: Biotechnological Applications of Biomass

By Edward Kwaku Armah, Maggie Chetty, Jeremiah Adebisi Adedeji, Donald Tyoker Kukwa, Boldwin Mutsvene, Khaya Pearlman Shabangu and Babatunde Femi Bakare

The quality of freshwater and its supply, particularly for domestic and industrial purposes are waning due to urbanization and inefficient conventional wastewater treatment (WWT) processes. For decades, conventional WWT processes have succeeded to some extent in treating effluents to meet standard discharge requirements. However, improvements in WWT are necessary to render treated wastewater for re-use in the industrial, agricultural, and domestic sectors. Three emerging technologies including membrane technology, microbial fuel cells and microalgae, as well as WWT strategies are discussed in this chapter. These applications are a promising alternative for manifold WWT processes and distribution systems in mitigating contaminants to meet acceptable limitations. The basic principles, types and applications, merits, and demerits of the aforementioned technologies are addressed in relation to their current limitations and future research needs. The development in WWT blueprints will augment the application of these emerging technologies for sustainable management and water conservation, with re-use strategies.

Part of the book: Promising Techniques for Wastewater Treatment and Water Quality Assessment

By Donald Tyoker Kukwa and Maggie Chetty

Microalgae are unicellular, eukaryotic organisms which possess unique qualities of replication, producing biomass as a precursor for biofuels, nutraceuticals, biofertilizer, and fine chemicals including hydrocarbons. Microalgae access nitrates and phosphates in wastewater from municipalities, industries, and agricultural processes to grow. Wastewater is, therefore, culture media for microalgae, and provides the needed nutrients, micronutrients, inorganic and organic pollutants to produce microalgae biomass. Suitable strains of microalgae cultivated under mesophilic conditions in wastewater with optimized hydrodynamics, hydraulic retention time (HRT), luminous intensity, and other co-factors produce biomass of high specific growth rate, high productivity, and with high density. The hydrodynamics are determined using a range of bioreactors from raceway ponds, photobioreactors to hybrid reactors. Carbon dioxide is used in the photosynthetic process, which offers different growth stimuli in the daytime and the night-time as the microalgae cultivation technique is navigated between autotrophy, heterotrophy, and mixotrophy resulting in microalgal lipids of different compositions.

Part of the book: Biotechnological Applications of Biomass

By Donald Kukwa, Maggie Chetty, Zikhona Tshemese, Denzil Estrice and Ndumiso Duma

The chapter’s goal is to highlight how the reclamation of household and agricultural wastes can be used to generate biogas, biochar, and other energy resources. Leftover food, tainted food and vegetables, kitchen greywater, worn-out clothes, textiles and paper are all targets for household waste in this area. Agricultural waste includes both annual and perennial crops. Annual crops are those that complete their life cycle in a year or less and are comparable to bi-annual crops, although bi-annuals can live for up to two years before dying. The majority of vegetable crops are annuals, which can be harvested within two to three months of seeding. Perennials crops are known to last two or more seasons. Wastes from these sources are revalued in various shapes and forms, with the Green Engineering template being used to infuse cost-effectiveness into the process to entice investors. The economic impact of resource reclamation is used to determine the process’s feasibility, while the life cycle analysis looks at the process’s long-term viability. This is in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), whose roadmap was created to manage access to and transition to clean renewable energy by 2030, with a target of net zero emissions by 2050.

Part of the book: Biogas

By Donald Tyoker Kukwa, Felicia Omolara Afolabi, Emmanuel Kweinor Tetteh, Ifeanyi Michael Smarte Anekwe and Maggie Chetty

The remediation of the contaminated environment using the physical, thermal, or chemical methods has been criticized due to their high-cost implication, non-eco-friendly and inability to meet remediation objectives. Bioremediation offers the application of environmentally benign and cost-effective biological techniques for the remediation of contaminated sites. This chapter provides an overview of bioremediation technologies for the remediation of hazardous substances in the environment while highlighting the application of bioturbation as a promising bioremediation tool for the effective treatment of organic and inorganic contaminants. Given the success of bioremediation, most of these technologies are yet to be applied on a large scale which presents a drawback to this technique. Challenges and prospects for the effective application of bioremediation technologies were discussed.

Part of the book: Hazardous Waste Management