Professor Andrew Ofudje lectures in the Department of Chemical Sciences Mountain Top University Ibafo, Prayer City, Ogun State. He is a distinguished researcher focusing on converting agricultural waste products into valuable products like adsorbents that can be used to remove contaminants such as heavy metals, dyes, pesticides, and pharmaceutical pollutants from wastewater. Prof. Ofudje and his team have used agro-waste materials such as corn cob, corn shaft, coconut shaft, animal bones, fish scales, orange peels, and many more for wastewater treatment. In his over sixteen years of research activities, he has developed various adsorbents from agro-waste and successfully used them to remediate several contaminants such as heavy metals, dyes, and pesticides from wastewater. To improve the adsorption properties of this agro-waste, the team uses various treatment methods such as chemical activation which involves treating the agro-waste with chemicals (e.g., acids or bases), physical treatment like grinding and thermal processing which entails the pyrolysis or carbonization of the agro-waste into activated carbon, which significantly enhanced the adsorption capabilities of the adsorbents by providing larger surface area and activation of functional groups. The increasing pollution of water bodies due to industrial effluents, agricultural runoff, and domestic waste has raised significant environmental concerns. Traditional wastewater treatment methods often involve high operational costs and chemical agents that may pose additional environmental risks. In recent years, the utilization of agro-waste as a sustainable and cost-effective adsorbent for the removal of pollutants from wastewater has gained traction. Agro-waste refers to the by-products generated from agricultural activities, which are often discarded or underutilized.
In 2012 Prof. Ofudje and his team researched the use of untreated and acid-treated low-cost adsorbents of corncob and shaft for biosorpton of Mn(II), Cr(VI), and Pb(II) ions in a batch experimental process {Bioresources, 6(4), 4117-4134; Journal of Chemical Society of Pakistan, 34(6):1388-1396; Applied Water Science, 3(1): 167-179}. The low-cost materials were activated with an acid and the results showed that the metal uptake increases with experimental factors such as temperature, contact time, and with the adsorbent dosage. They reported further that functional groups such as –COOH, -OH, -C=O, and –NH2 which were present on the surface of the adsorbent were responsible for the adsorption process. To ensure the reusability of both corncob and shaft adsorbent materials, they carried out a desorption study which revealed that they can be subjected through regeneration. According to his work published in 2015 (Bioresource, 10(2):3462-3480), Prof. Ofudje’s lead team successfully utilized raw and alkaline-modified coconut shaft as an excellent adsorbent for Pb2+ removal in a batch process. The results clearly demonstrated the greater potency of the alkaline-modified coconut shaft over the raw material. They attributed this to the possible removal of dirt from the adsorbent’s pore sites, thus making it more prone to the removal of the pollutant.
Similarly, in 2021 Prof. Ofudje was able to extract nano-rod hydroxyapatite from Nano-rod hydroxyapatite adsorbent from fish scale and the material was effectively used to adsorb nickel ions from solutions (Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 9 (2021) 105931). The result revealed that the sintering behaviour of this material influences its structural properties and, consequently, its adsorption capacity. The reports concluded that sintering temperatures enhanced the crystallinity and surface area of nano-rods, thus affecting the adsorption parameters such as equilibrium uptake and kinetics. Most recently, Prof. Ofudje studied the development of a nano-round polycrystalline adsorbent made from waste chicken bones for the effective adsorption of Congo red dye, which is a synthetic dye often found in wastewater (Scientific Reports, 14:7809. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-57412-4). The chicken bone-derived adsorbent demonstrates significant potential due to its high surface area and porous structure, which enhances its ability to capture and remove this dye from contaminated water sources.
Given his wealth of experience and expertise, Prof. Ofudje can develop cheap, alternative, efficient and eco-friendly materials like adsorbent or activated carbon which can be used as filter beds for water treatment. The world is currently facing environmental contamination challenges, especially in the area of water pollution as a result of the continuous discharge of pollutants such as heavy metals, dyes, effluents from industries, pesticides, oil spillage, pharmaceutical waste products and many more which render the water body useless for human consumption. In so many countries around the world including Nigeria and other third-world countries, there is a lack of potable water. The conventional methods available for the treatment of wastewater are very expensive, non-efficient and can also generate sludge causing pollution in the process. Therefore, there is a need to seek possible means of treating wastewater that will be cheap, eco-friendly and efficient.
Judging from the works of Prof. Ofudje on the concept of the use of agro-waste as an effective adsorbent for pollutant removal in wastewater treatment, it can be said that he is one of the best and a star in his field. His work presents a promising solution to environmental challenges. Besides providing a cost-effective alternative to conventional methods, they also promote the recycling of agricultural by-products, thus contributing to sustainability. Countries, private and government agencies can immensely benefit from his wealth of experience as a distinguished researcher and scholar. He is currently the Dean, of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, at Mountain Top University.
As a dynamic researcher and consultant, Prof. Ofudje’s wealth of experience could be useful in private, public, and government establishments where wastewater can be utilized for effective maximization.
He can be reached at eaofudje@mtu.edu.ng
