The Potential Use of Cassava Peel for Treatment of Mine Water in Mozambique

Abstract

In the last decade, Mozambique became one of the top coal producers in Africa. The coal mines are in Moatize district in the center of the country, inside the lower Zambezi river basin. Pollution due to mining activities has negative impacts in agriculture, fishing, water supply, and presents risks to public health. Mozambique is one of the largest cassava producers in the world. More than 1.5 million tons of cassava peel are generated in the country and this agrowaste is discarded. The aim of this study is to discuss the possibility of using cassava peel to treat mine water. Cassava peel can be used as carbon sources for sulfate reducing bacteria in bioremediation, as an adsorbent and as a filter medium. An integrated method is proposed for treatment of mine water in Moatize. It was suggested that applying cassava peel generated in developing countries for treatment of mine water could be a good solution to protect the environment against mining pollution.

Structure, Morphological, and Physicochemical Characteristics of a New Composite Coagulant Made From Polyaluminium Chloride and Agro-waste of Tapioca Peel

“…Starch has been recognised as the most extensively studied coagulant aid due to its biodegradability and susceptibility to modi cation [42]. Various past reviews and studies have reported the potential of tapioca peel in water and wastewater remediation [36,40,43,44,45,46]. The application of tapioca peel is mostly made in the form of activated carbon, which is also known as a cheap bio-adsorbent in the engineering discipline.…”

“…The conversion of this agro-waste into activated carbon is acknowledged to extend its lifespan. The peel is chemically modi ed using the respective concentration of acids to stimulate the particular cell wall and surface [43]. The bio-adsorbent has been widely used for sequestering heavy metal ions [32,36,40], mine water treatment [43], gas puri cation, and uid detoxi cation [45].…”

“…The peel is chemically modi ed using the respective concentration of acids to stimulate the particular cell wall and surface [43]. The bio-adsorbent has been widely used for sequestering heavy metal ions [32,36,40], mine water treatment [43], gas puri cation, and uid detoxi cation [45]. Agro-wastes such as banana peel, coconut coir, and tapioca peel are proven to have these unique metal-binding sites, which can provide enough capacities to remove heavy metals from polluted water at minimal cost [47].…”

“…In addition to the application of inexpensive bio-adsorbent, tapioca peel has also been used as the alternative feedstock for electrode materials used in supercapacitors [40] a packed-bed column using immobilised peel waste biomass, an unmodi ed organic lter medium [43], cationic waxy tapioca for turbidity and colour removal [29], and a natural coagulant in coagulationocculation treatment [44]. The conversion of these by-products into valuable materials would increase their market value and ultimately bene t the producers.…”

A Review of Wastewater Treatment using Natural Material and Its Potential as Aid and Composite Coagulant

“…The plants such as Moringa oleifera and rice starch can be locally grown, where there is a lot of land space available (Rasool et al 2016;Teixeira et al 2017). The thoughts in commercialization of natural materials as coagulants might also boost the social factor of the locals that rely on these agricultural economy (Pondja et al 2017;Yin 2010), also probably as solution towards wastewater and agro waste pollution. The renewable sources of them also mean the continuous supply of raw materials in development of coagulants.…”