The study investigated the potential of water hyacinths and phytoplankton scum, an aquatic weed, as binder for production of fuel\r\nbriquettes. It also evaluated some physical and combustion characteristics. The water hyacinths were manually harvested, cleaned,\r\nsun-dried, and milled to particle sizes distribution ranging from <0.25 to 4.75mm using hammer mill.The water hyacinth grinds\r\nand binder (phytoplankton scum) at 10% (B1), 20% (B2), 30% (B3), 40% (B4), and 50% (B5) by weight of each feedstock were\r\nfed into a steel cylindrical die of dimension 14.3 cm height and 4.7 cm diameter and compressed by hydraulic press at pressure\r\n20MPa with dwell time of 45 seconds. Data were analysed using analysis of variance and descriptive statistics. Initial bulk density\r\nof uncompressed mixture of water hyacinth and phytoplankton scum at different binder levels varied between 113.86 �± 3.75 (B1) and\r\n156.93 �± 4.82 kg/m3 (B5). Compressed and relaxed densities of water hyacinth briquettes at different binder proportions showed\r\nsignificant difference ?? < 0.05. Durability of the briquettes improved with increased binder proportion. Phytoplankton scum\r\nimproved the mechanical handling characteristics of the briquettes. It could be concluded that production of water hyacinth\r\nbriquettes is feasible, cheaper, and environmentally friendly and that they compete favourably with other agricultural products.
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