The SSR Journal of Engineering and Technology (SSRJET) published the work of researchers Mbonu, Omaka, and Igwe, who investigated how turning simple industrial and marine wastes into value added adsorbents could address the growing crisis of industrial water pollution. Paint manufacturing facilities generate heavily contaminated effluents laden with pigments, dissolved solids, organic solvents, and non biodegradable toxic metals that threaten aquatic life and public safety when dumped untreated. Traditional wastewater technologies often demand immense financial resources, high energy inputs, and advanced engineering oversight, making them impractical for many developing economies. By harvesting raw sawdust from timber mills and gathering discarded periwinkle shells from local seafood processing centers, the investigation highlights a practical path forward for sustainable industrial waste management.

The research focused extensively on the overall remediation performance of these biomassBiomass is a complex biological organic or non-organic solid product derived from living or recently living organism and available naturally. Various types of wastes such as animal manure, waste paper, sludge and many industrial wastes are also treated as biomass because like natural biomass these More derived chars, measuring how successfully they pull impurities from complex paint production mixtures. When comparing the raw materials, the charcoalCharcoal is a black, brittle, and porous material produced by heating wood or other organic substances in a low-oxygen environment. It is primarily used as a fuel source for cooking and heating.   More derived from marine periwinkle shells consistently outmatched the sawdust alternative across nearly every tested water quality index. This divergence stems from the inherent mineral makeup of the ocean shells, which feature high concentrations of calcium carbonate that create a superior microscopic architecture for trapping dissolved compounds. While raw biomass biochars demonstrated moderate pollutant removal, treating the materials with phosphoric acid activation unlocked drastically higher cleansing capacities by expanding their surface area and creating active functional binding sites.

The experimental results revealed significant reductions in the overall organic loading of the paint effluent, which originally carried heavily elevated pollution levels. The chemical modification allowed the periwinkle shell char to achieve the highest treatment efficiencies recorded in the investigation, dropping biochemical oxygen demand by up to thirty-three percent and reducing chemical oxygen demand by ten percent. As these oxygen demanding organic fractions, solvents, and paint residues were captured by the carbon matrices, the overall health of the water matrix improved substantially. This was clearly reflected by a dramatic rise in dissolved oxygen levels, which surged upward by forty to forty-seven percent, indicating a much safer environment for receiving aquatic ecosystems.

Nutrient pollution, which regularly triggers destructive algal blooms in public waterways, also showed clear decreases following the batch adsorption process. The modified periwinkle char captured twenty-one to twenty-eight percent of dissolved phosphates and thirteen to twenty-three percent of nitrates, while also lowering general electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids by smaller margins. The physical and chemical structural developments triggered during the furnace carbonization allowed the biochars to trap these ionic particles through electrostatic attraction, surface complexation, and direct mineral precipitation.

The most dramatic success of the waste to resource methodology appeared during the analysis of toxic heavy metals, which pose severe risks due to bioaccumulation in the food chain. Under optimized conditions involving chemical activation and overnight contact, the modified periwinkle shell biochar performed as the most powerful adsorbent. It pulled ninety-five point fifty-six percent of cadmium and ninety-four point thirty-eight percent of lead out of the wastewater matrix, while simultaneously removing over ninety-two percent of chromium and copper. Arsenic dropped by ninety percent, and even competitive zinc ions were reduced by nearly eighty-seven percent. Ultimately, the study confirms that transforming marine and agricultural biowastes into engineered biochars offers a highly efficient, affordable, and ecologically responsible tool for cleansing hazardous industrial wastewater before environmental discharge.

Source: Mbonu, O. F., Omaka, O. N., & Igwe, D. O. (2026). Waste-to-resource approach for industrial wastewater treatment: A sustainable removal of organic pollutants, nutrients, and heavy metals from paint effluent using biomass-derived sawdust and periwinkle shell biochars. SSR Journal of Engineering and Technology (SSRJET), 3(7), 28-47.