Design and development of water hyacinth dryer with presser for handicraft products/ Jashie Mae A. Canales, Vincent John A. Fortus, Antonette Renee S. Reloj, Zachariah Timothy D. Rey, and Precious Mae P. Sarahina.--

Bachelor's thesis

College of Engineering.-- Bachelor of science in mechanical engineering: Technological University of the Philippines, 2023.

Includes bibliographic references and index.

Water hyacinth is an invasive aquatic plant that has a rapid rate of reproduction, and it causes negative effects in the surroundings especially to underwater organisms and bodies of water. The plant aggravates the water quality by blocking the sunlight form underwater species and clogs waterways that can cause flooding. One way to battle this problem is to utilize the water hyacinth and turn it to something useful. Water Hyacinth handicraft such as bags, baskets, slippers, ropes, and other items is a great way of utilizing water hyacinth in a useful manner. However, drying water hyacinth takes a long time due to its high moisture content. It can take anywhere from 3 days to 7 days or even more depending on its size and the weather condition. The researchers created a water hyacinth dryer which can speed up the drying process of the stalks removing an average of 91.895% of the moisture after an average of 5.5 hours. The fan and finned tube heater ensured that the heat inside the drying chamber is evenly distributed. The temperature inside the drying chamber is maintained at 70 °C. After the drying process, the dried water hyacinth stalks will fall into the presser to be pressed to a thickness of below 2mm. The presser can press 150 dried water hyacinth stalks at an average time of 120.055 s. The Water Hyacinth Dryer with Presser can process 150 water hyacinth stalks per batch, the processing time of the machine takes 4-6 hours depending on the size, length, weight, and thickness of the water hyacinth stalks. Based on the data gathered, the results clearly indicate that the machine significantly decreased the processing time of drying and pressing water hyacinth stalks therefore increasing the rate of dried and pressed water hyacinth stalks that is ready for handicraft making.