Ecole Nationale d'Ingenieurs Abderhamane Baba Touré (ENI-ABT)
Mali
Read more about the Project!Problem Statement
The widespread presence of pharmaceutical products in Africa, such as antibiotics and other trace contaminants, has raised concerns about their adverse effects on public health and ecosystems. The ENZYREP project aims to develop large-scale use of enzymes as a nature-based solution to reduce micropollutants such as antibiotics in wastewater (e.g., hospitals, and pharmaceutical industries) as a means to limit the widespread presence of these harmful contaminants in the environment for the protection of public health and ecosystems.
Progress Highlights
Progress made includes, but not limited to, screening, extracting, purifying and characterizing two enzymes (laccase and tyrosinase) from African endogenous mushroom. Meanwhile, important capacity is being built in terms of training skilled research students and start-up a brand-new laboratory.
Key Findings
Both extracted enzymes can effectively remove drugs from wastewater. The treatment system can also be upscaled and optimized.
Potential Impact
ENZYREP project will shed light on the feasibility to effectively remove harmful contaminants from wastewater discharged from hospitals and pharmaceutical factories. Ultimately, a change in policy and regulations are expected to mandate polluters to implement treatment systems to deal with micropollutants before their discharge into nature.
Summary
The widespread presence of pharmaceutical products in Africa such as antibiotics and other trace contaminants has raised concerns about their adverse effects for the public health and ecosystems. Under his ARISE-PP grant, Dr Sidy Ba’s research will investigate field application of highly oxidative enzymes as a nature-based solution (NBS) to remove these micropollutants from wastewater and soil, reduce carbon dioxide emission from these matrices, and fertilize soil with enzyme-converted nitrogen.
Grantee Description
Dr Sidy Ba is an Associate Professor at the National School of Engineers Abderhamane Baba Toure (ENI-ABT) of Bamako, Mali and the Founding Head of the Laboratory of Chemical & Environmental Engineering. He earned his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada) under a fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). His research focused on crosslinking enzymes (phenoloxidases) for their insolubilization to remove pharmaceutically active compounds including antibiotics from wastewater.
Dr Ba is committed to training and mentoring young Africans in Sciences, Engineering, Technologies and Innovation, particularly in water sciences and technologies for a cleaner environment in Africa.
Project: Enzymatic biotechnology for nature-based remediation of environmental pollution (ENZYREP)
Most environmental applications of biocatalysts remain confined in laboratory research for academic publications. Dr Ba strongly believes in the feasibility and development of field applications of enzymes as a ground-breaking NBS of environmentally sound techniques and technologies. The ENZYREP project will develop large-scale removal of contaminants of (re)emerging concerns from wastewater such as hospitals and industries, and contaminated soils with trace contaminants. His work will also investigate the reduction of carbon dioxide emission from these matrices, and fertilization of decontaminated soil with enhanced enzyme-converted nitrogen.
