Kerala: Proposal to turn hyacinth into fertilizer

KOCHI: To fight the invasive water hyacinths that have contaminated the waterways of Kochi, Shannan Kamalaneson, a member of the Liveable Urbanism Design School at Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK, has come up with an innovative idea of creating a community hub and a biofuel and biofertilizer plant at Vaduthala. The proposal is to harvest and covert water hyacinths into biodiesel and biofertilizer.
Kamalaneson’s MArch proposal investigated, “how clearing Kochi’s waterways of the water hyacinths through economic incentives, could improve the health, economy, social capital, and environment of the city”.
“By studying Kochi’s waterways and the liveability rates of the city it was clear that the poor waterways were negatively affecting and reducing the cities liveability,” she said in her proposal.
Kamalaneson said that the collection of hyacinth could be incentivized. “The water hyacinths were proposed to be collected by the public who would be financially rewarded for depositing the weed at set zones across the city, where they will then be converted into a profit-generating asset: biofuel, biofertilizer, crafts or isolated chemicals. The key hub which the project focused on was the biofuel and biofertilizer hub which would span 30 years on the site in Kochi to allow for successful water hyacinth eradication and improved community resilience. The proposal would therefore provide a water hyacinth conversion plant as well as a community garden, visitors centre, restaurant, educational space, research lab and a local market amongst other community-strengthening facilities in order to create a new resilient economy and future for the city,” she said in her proposal.
Kamalaneson suggested the biofuel and biofertilizer plants could be designed as modular, flexible, floating structures that would allow for ease of transportation through the waterways of Kochi in order to harvest the weed. “The structures are built upon concrete barges with floating reed beds tied to the structures which will assist with improving the quality of the water whilst providing habitats for the aquatic life below,” she proposed.