Students turn alien invaders into bio fuel

MECHANICAL engineer students at UKZN showed off their projects at the 30th annual open day held on Wednesday, 16 October at the Unite building on the Howard College Campus. Glenashley resident, Cassandra Chetty was part of a team of four that worked on a machine that converts water hyacinths into clean cooking fuel. The team was one of 20 groups of four comprising a total of 80 students with projects on display.

“We produce briquettes that can be carbonised to form charcoal or at the mixing stage you can add cement and make bricks out of them to use in landfills or sink holes as a filler material to prevent soil erosion. Our main aim was to make briquettes. The ultimate goal of these rigs is to set them up in communities and teach the community how to use the machinery in a safe way, so they can make their own cooking fuel and use that as a source of income,” said Chetty.

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Professor Glen Bright, Dean of engineering at the university said projects align with industry goals and community upliftment.

“We try and do community awareness projects, where we can help out and impact the community. The water hyacinth clogging our rivers. It is a weed that multiplies at a rapid rate. So, we are trying to do two things: clear it and use it to make renewable energy. It’s a double edged sword.”

Mustafa Vahed who was part of the team, explained that the aim of the project was to build a machine that can dewater the hyacinth to create a product with 10 per cent moisture content.

“There’s a shredding blade that runs at 2800 RPM,” he added.

Thereafter the plant matter is pressed into molds and placed in a specialised kiln.

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Putting the plant to use in this way is a clever strategy to eradicate an invasive said Chetty.

“It’s a category one invasive plant, according to the government, so when it is seen on site, it has to be removed and destroyed. It’s a criminal offence to propagate this plant and spread it around, it’s quite a serious problem. It’s also one of the reasons why planes can’t land on waterways, because the hyacinths’ root system is so deep that it can get caught up in the landing mechanisms,” she said.

Ensuring that the plant cannot grow from the briquettes’ is vital.

“We put it through quite a few chemical processes, so the cells are damaged, we’ve removed so much water from it that it’s no longer viable. Even if it were placed in soil, it wouldn’t grow,” she said.

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