Water hyacinth is a serious pest. A free-floating plant with lavender flowers, this weed is choking tropical fresh waters, suffocating lakes, blocking shipping and hurting local economies. So why not turn it into animal food suggests civil engineer Viktor Valk.
Research: Valorisation of water hyacinth as a renewable source of animal feed and biogas: a business case for lake Victoria, Kenya
Score: 7.5
The problem with water hyacinth”, said Valk (24), “is that it doubles its population in just seven days, and it adapts easily to polluted water.” As a result, water hyacinth forms huge, floating mats, hectares across, which are so dense that fisherman can’t fish, ships can’t get through and everything living in the lakes and ponds beneath slowly dies. Meanwhile snails and mosquitoes thrive in this choking mass of weed, bringing malaria and schistosomiasis to communities throughout the tropics and subtropics.
Sponsored by Dutch shipbuilders, Royal IHC, and engineering consultants, Witteveen+Bos, Valk decided to look into the economic feasibility of reusing water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, as an industrial product. “I began by asking myself – what are the currently available technologies, which of these technologies can be used in remote areas, and what is the potential demand for recycled products in the places where it grows?” Valk soon concluded that the main processing options for water hyacinth are to extract the protein for use in animal feed and then turn the waste into fertilizer and biogas.
Having developed a promising theoretical business model, Valk then travelled to Kisumu Port in Kenya, where water hyacinth has brought trade to a near standstill. “Ironically”, said Valk, “when I arrived, the hyacinth was less of an issue than normal because according to the locals, the winds change in October, blowing water hyacinth out of the bay and into Lake Victoria.” Undeterred, Valk carried out research on market prices, and then developed a practical business model for shredding the plants, removing the moisture and extracting the proteins.
And his conclusion? “It would be economically feasible to process water hyacinth crops into animal feed, fertilizer and biogas in Kenya,” said Valk, “particularly if the processing plant is situated close to the lake. Because water hyacinth is 95% water, being close to the source would reduce transport costs considerably.” Meanwhile, Valk’s sponsors, Royal IHC and Witteveen+Bos, will be taking this idea further: “A lot depends on new technologies”, explained Valk, “so it’s a question of whether it can be implemented straightaway.” (
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