DESIGN OF A BIO-COAL FROM WATER HYACINTH

Chemical engineering

Madagascar was covered by a large natural forest which occupied more than 20% of Malagasy territory, or more than 13 million hectares. Unfortunately, about 85% of this area is destroyed today. On average, 200 to 300,000 hectares of forest disappear each year. Deforestation in Madagascar is caused mainly by the practice of slash-and-burn, logging and the production of fuel including charcoal for domestic use. Indeed, 92% of the daily energy of Malagasy people comes from charcoal and more than 85% of households use it mainly for the preparation of the meal. Now, the use of charcoal contributes strongly to the consequent deforestation of Madagascar. To meet the need for charcoal throughout Madagascar, it takes at least more than 410 000 tonnes per year, or the equivalent of 115 000 hectares of forests destroyed per year. The objective of this study is to design an environmentally friendly fuel called bio-Coal as a sustainable solution to curb deforestation caused by the use of charcoal. Thus, the water hyacinth will be used as a source of energy. So, this bio-Coal is made from very dry water hyacinth, mixed with some additives after being carbonized and then packaged to make a fuel that will be both economical and ecological with a calorific value of about 5 594 kcal.kg-1. This alternative bio-coal to charcoal will contribute to reducing forest destruction in Madagascar.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.