Members: Harold Sumagaysay

Anthon Toledano
Tentative title: Proposal for the utilization of Eichhornia crassipes (common water hyacinth) for
biomass briquette as an alternative to coal.

Problem/Issues/Gap/Topic
Water hyacinth is one of the aquatic plants with the fastest growth in the world. With the
displacement of water by water hyacinths, the effective capacity of water reservoirs is reduced by huge
amount. The reduced water flow can cause flooding and negatively affect irrigation schemes by clogging
the canals and piping systems. An exuberant growth of water hyacinth poses a threat to the nearby
communities as it hampers their economic progress by inhabiting the area in which fishermen gather to
fish. While the presence of water hyacinths might be unhelpful, it can alternatively bring a good fortune
to the locals, with its parts being used as a raw material for the manufacture of handmade products such
as bags, shoes, and many more. Further investigations of its physical and chemical properties have lead to
many discoveries, including the possibility of it as a source of energy, particularly biomass, a term for
plant or animal wastes used as a source of fuel.
Conventional way of production of electricity and fuels for heating and transportation requires
fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas because of their higher energy output. However,
burning fossil fuels releases enormous carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Using biomass in heating as an
alternative to fossil fuels may result in lower CO 2 emissions overall because biomass is a low carbon fuel.
Biomass breathes carbon dioxide extracted from the atmosphere and stores it in its tissue. Although when
biomass is burned, it emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, when it regrows, it absorbs the same
amount of carbon dioxide in the process of photosynthesis, and this cycle is carbon neutral. In addition to
that, fossil fuels take millions of years to produce while on the other hand, biomass is renewable, fast-
growing and easy to collect without depleting natural resources, so ideally, because of its high growth
yield and overproduction, it is envisioned that water hyacinth is a potential biomass material for the
production of briquettes.

Statement of the Problem (2-3 questions)

This study aimed to determine if water hyacinth can be an alternative coal as biomass briquettes
for production of energy. Specifically, this sought to answer the following:
1. Is water hyacinth biomass briquette effective as an alternative coal thus a potential source of
energy?
2. What is the energy content, or the calorific value (CV), of water hyacinth biomass briquette
samples?
3. Is there a significant effect of using water hyacinth biomass briquette in reducing emissions
mitigated in contribution of greenhouse gases (GHG) to the environment?

Significance of the study:

We have been facing a much bigger issue than our social and personal problems, and it has been
taking place for a long time our minds cannot comprehend. The earth is warming gradually. Sudden
changes in the temperature could potentially destroy our ecosystem, and unfortunately the casualties have
been showing through extinction of wild animals due to the irregularities in their natural habitat. Burning
oil, coal and gas from factories and for energy use produces tons of greenhouse gases, and even a simple
biological process like breathing have a huge impact on the Earth’s ecological condition. Rural
communities who are basically poor and cannot afford LPGs generally resort to deforesting in order to
harvest a good number of logs to be used for heating applications in the form of charcoals. On a
macroscopic scale, the recycling operation of CO2 to O2 is mainly affected. Carbon dioxide is a
greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere. If there are less trees to absorb the carbon dioxide, the
Earth and all lifeforms will be in danger. By taking the rapid growth of water hyacinth in consideration,
the weed can effectually replace other sources of fuel for a stable supply of heating materials, and
eventually, the adverse effect of deforestation could be reduced, that is, if we are interested in reducing
carbon dioxide emissions anytime in the next 40 years.