African Journal of Environmental and Waste Management

African Journal of Environmental and Waste Management ISSN 2375-1266 Vol. 12 (2), pp. 001-007, February, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper
    
Cassava Wastewater Treatment by Alkali-Induced Degradation: A Detoxification Strategy

Emmanuel I. Ugwu* and Jonah C. Agunwamba

Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Accepted 07 October, 2024

Cassava wastewater contains toxic materials that can endanger humans, as well as other living organisms if they are not properly treated before disposal. In order to address this problem, there is an urgent need to develop simple and efficient technologies for management of cassava wastewater, especially in tropical developing countries where cassava is extensively processed, and consumed on daily basis. This study was therefore, aimed at treating cassava wastewater by using alkali hydrolysis. Degradation products of cassava wastewater were characterized using different parameters under static and batch fermentation modes. With batch reactor as a model, hydrolysis of cassava wastewater over 20 days upon with wide range of NaOH concentrations was investigated. With 0.25 M NaOH, cyanide concentration was greatly hydrolyzed (44-fold) in 20 days. Furthermore, the alkali treatment drastically reduced the coliforms and reduced the biochemical oxygen demand in the cassava wastewater. This study apparently indicated that alkali treatment was very efficient in degrading the waste compounds from cassava. This system can be explored further for potential degradation of waste water treatment in tropical developing countries.

Keywords: Cassava, cyanide, hydrolysis, alkali, wastewater.