Cost Hurdles for Biomass Refining of Water Hyacinth

1. Bärbel Winches are far less expensive and nicely suited for many patches of plants. One less step with no unloading of boat. Should reduce labor by 50%. THIS MEANS LOWER COST THAN GRASSES! Feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol: Land plants – costly to grow, harvest, and pretreat Aquatic plants – nuisance, need cheaper harvesting, but easy pretreatment Site specific collection Option 1. Collect on water. OK for large area. Lake Victoria From Kenya Cost Hurdles for Biomass Refining of Water Hyacinth Difficult transport of devices to landlocked waters. Still have to dump to shore Estimate for water hyacinth: grows about 1/4 as fast as algae, projects above pond to capture light well, maybe 200 tons per acre year This would be a fantastic productivity!! 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 (http://www.fao.org/docrep/field/003/R7236E/R7236E04.htm Both options need transport to factory. Option 2. Winch swaths to shore Joel Plawsky, Lealon Martin, and Henry R. Bungay Howard P. Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY 12180-3590 Bärbel Proposed cutter to Winch on trailer create swaths Labor costs are major factor Too wet (95% water). Must press. Less energy after letting biomass rot a bit. Open cell structure is a new biochemical engineering challenge for pretreatment. Remaining steps to make fuel ethanol are well established J.E. Hronich, L. Martin, J. Plawsky, and H.R. Bungay, “Potential of Eichhorniacrassipes for biomass refining” Jour. Industrial and Microbial Biotechnol., 35: 393-402 (2008) Multiple collection areas on shore.