Fuel Briquette Potential Of Water Hyacinth As Clean Energ Source And Its Contribution For Controlling The Reinfestation Of The Weed Into Lake Ecosystem The Case Of Lake Koka Ethiopia

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), known to be native to south America, is the most serious invasive aquatic weed, spreading throughout the world at an alarming rate. It has now become an environmental and social challenge in Ethiopia. However, these plants can be converted into fuel briquette and used for cooking and heating purpose. So, this study aimed to produce fuel briquettes from the mixture of water hyacinth and cow dung in order to control the weed infestation and fill energy gap of the surrounding communities. Water hyacinth was collected from lake koka and sun-dried for a month. After completely dried, it was carbonized, ground and mixed with dry and crushed cow dung into soupy slurry using hot water by the ratio of 100:00, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40 and 50:50. Then beehive briquettes with 12 holes at the center having 13cm diameter and 7.5cm length were produced using manual press mold and sundried. The experimental results of major parameters such as moisture, volatile matter, calorific value and bulk for biomass briquettes of water hyacinth to cow dung of the ratios 100:00 to 50:50 were 7.75_ 8.33%, 16.9_ 35.33%, 2521.3_3180.6 cal/g and 0.19 _ 0.35/cm3 respectively. Hence, the findings of this study showed that water hyacinth can be briquetted and feasible as a potential clean energy source for heating and cooking purpose at the household and small scale industrial level which ultimately controls the overgrowth of water hyacinth sustainably.

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