DETERMINATION OF CLAY FRACTION AS BINDING AGENT IN BRIQUETTE PRODUCTION FROM WATER HYACINTH

Abstract

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), is among aggressive weeds that threatens water bodies wherever it appears. In Ethiopia this weed was first seen in Koka Lake over five decades ago, but its aggressiveness increased recently since it is currently observed on several lakes and reservoirs. On the one hand, the removal of this weed is one major problem. On the other hand, not knowing what to do with this weed after it has been removed is other challenge. This study tries to address this second challenge. The study is aimed to produce fuel briquettes from water hyacinth using clay as a binding agent. For the study, water hyacinth briquettes were produced with clay fractions of 3%, 5%, 7%, and 10%. Thereafter the burning characteristics of the briquettes were studied and compared with that of wood charcoal. The parameters used for comparison were onset of cooking and effective cooking times. The results obtained indicate that the fractions of binding agents did not show significant differences in terms of onset of cooking. However, there were significant differences in effective cooking times of the treatments in which the briquette of 10% clay binding agent outperformed the rest, with the result of 29 minutes. The results obtained showed that only 3% of the initial weight of the plant gets converted to burnable char. The overall result indicated water hyacinth to be a low energy density plant. Therefore, the use of this plant as energy source may not be cost effective unless otherwise binding agents that are by themselves contributing to the energy or binding agents that can elongate heat retention times are selected. The use of cow dung can be an option for the former, and perhaps the use of more clay fraction can be an option for the latter.