Water lily good as charcoal briquette

Have you ever wondered why water hyacinth, locally known as water lily, has become a fixture in bodies of water, particularly in lakes?

It’s because water hyacinth, the world’s most "invasive" aquatic plant, has a very efficient method of reproduction, as found in scientific studies across the globe.

Consider: One water hyacinth plant can produce 5,000-6,000 seeds per season and remain viable up to 15 years. A single plant can produce 797,160 daughter plants in three months.

In the Philippines, water lily blocks rivers and irrigation canals, hinders fishing, and enhances breeding places for vectors that transmit harmful diseases.

Specifically in Laguna Lake, it grows in abundance that it has become a nuisance to navigation. Sometimes, it enters lakeside farms in such quantities that it interferes in rice-growing.

Local government units around the 90,000-hectare lake spend a fortune annually to remove water lilies in mouths of rivers and in streets after typhoons.

Now comes a technology that can convert water hyacinth into charcoal briquettes ideal for, among other things, household cooking and grilling.

The briquettes burn clean with very little smoke, according to researchers of the Los Baños-Based Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (DENR-ERDB).

"The ash of water hyacinth is also valuable as a fertilizer," the ERDB research team led by Engr. Santiago Baconguis reported. ERDB, headed by Director Celso P. Diaz, is also involved in studies using cellulosic (plant) materials in charcoal briquette production. Other researchers involved are Alexander Malabanan, Dominador Pangga, Jesus Posadas, and Zoilo Alvarez.

Charcoal briquettes made from water lily are excellent fuels that can substitute wood-based and petroleum-based carriers, they said.

A ton of water hyacinth can remove 1-1.5 ha of the aquatic plants from the lake. It can save 75-88 trees with diameter of about 10 centimeters, can save an equivalent area of .12-.14 ha of forest plantation, and C02 avoidance is 1.65-22 t/ha. – Rudy A. Fernandez