Sustainable practices: recycling of biomass of eichhornia crassipes in the production of briquettes

The search for alternative energy sources has driven many researches in the whole world. In this sense this study aimed to investigate the production of briquettes from biomass of the aquatic macrophyte Eichhornia crassipes, more commonly known as water hyacinth. The aguapé is taken as a species is harmful to the environment due to its rapid growth in ponds, in some cases reaching to cover the entire surface of the lakes. This fact prevents the passage of light and affect the oxygenation of the water. In this way the production of briquettes from biomass of Eichhornia crassipes can contribute to minimizing the environmental impact that this aquatic macrophyte causes in dams and on the other hand can still provide solid fuel for applications in industrial boilers, bakeries and thermoelectric plants. The briquettes produced were compressed in a hydraulic press with a pressure of 10 Ton/cm2 and subsequently submitted to the analyzes of moisture, ash and volatile. As a bonding agent, it was investigated the application of crude glycerine, obtained from biodiesel production, in the proportions of 5, 10 and 15 mL per 100g of biomass. The results showed that the biomass of the aguapé is adapted very well to the production of briquettes, it was observed that the moisture content of the briquettes is directly proportional to the concentration of the binder. These presented a value of 14% of the ash content and volatile content of 84.7%, fairly satisfactory, considering that the more volatile content, the greater will be the calorific value of the fuel. Finally, it concludes that the production of briquettes from biomass of water hyacinth, is a very viable alternative and can contribute to the provision of solid fuels, renewable energy sources, and also contribute to reducing the environmental damage caused by the exaggerated growth of aquatic macrophyte in waters of reservoirs.