Sampurna Biswas

Indian environmental engineer revolutionizing wastewater treatment with low-cost bioremediation solutions

Sampurna Biswas is an environmental engineer based in Kolkata who pioneered BioRemedy, a groundbreaking system using locally sourced microbes to treat industrial wastewater. Her 2021 invention, the Microbial Biofilter Unit, reduces treatment costs by 70% while achieving 98% contaminant removal efficiency. This technology has been adopted by over 200 small factories in India's Sundarbans region, preventing mercury and dye pollution in critical mangrove ecosystems.

Biswas' Clean Rivers Initiative trained 5,000 women entrepreneurs to operate decentralized treatment units, creating green jobs while improving water quality. Her research on using banana waste as a bioadsorbent for heavy metals (published in Water Research) has inspired similar projects in Indonesia and Vietnam. In 2023, she launched WastewaterED, an open-source platform providing free technical manuals and training videos in 10 regional languages.

Her advocacy led to India's 2024 Pollution Prevention Code, mandating bioremediation for SMEs. Sampurna's TEDx talk Turning Waste into Wealth (2022) highlighted how microbial solutions can empower rural communities. She recently partnered with UNICEF to deploy her systems in flood-prone areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar.