(421m) Potential of Water Hyacinth for Biomass Refining

Potential of Water Hyacinth for Biomass Refining

Lealon Martin, Henry R. Bungay, and Joel Plawsky

Howard P. Isermann Department of
Chemical and Biological Engineering

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, NY 12180-3590

Water hyacinth is a pest throughout the world in hot or warm
climates because it forms dense mats that interfere with navigation,
recreation, irrigation, and power generation. These mats competitively exclude
native submersed and floating-leaved plants. Oxygen is depleted beneath water hyacinth
mats and the dense floating mats impede water flow and create good breeding
conditions for mosquitoes. As with most feedstocks
for biomass refining, cultivation and collection are key economic factors.
Water hyacinth is already available as an invasive, nuisance plant and if
desired, can be grown on existing ponds used for waste treatment and on waters
with unattractive alternate uses. This presentation addresses the collection process
that proved to be a major expense in our previous analysis of water hyacinth
economics. A preliminary examination of costs shows that using gravel barges
that are widely available and relatively low in cost to preprocess, store, and transport
the harvested material, can improve overall economics such that water hyacinth is
competitive with any other biomass source and might even become the biomass
feedstock of choice.