Experimental Investigation on Aquatic Waste Water Hyacinth (Eichhorniacrassipes) Plant into Natural Fibre Polymer Composite – Biological Waste into Commercial Product

Abstract

Present work dealt with evaluating the aquatic wastewater hyacinth plant long fibre reinforced withepoxy polymer composite mechanical strength, absorption, characterization, thermal degradation and stability, surface morphology studies. This research work water hyacinth long fibre is used as a reinforcement material and epoxy polymer matrix material is used as a matrix phase material. By utilizing the compression moulding hot press machine the different weight percentages (20, 25, 30, and 35%) of the hyacinth composite samples areproduced.Converting the biological waste into zero waste and useful product concept is achieved in this research. In this work hyacinth, long fibre is extracted with a new novel mechanical way (fabricated machine) of the extraction process. Hyacinth long fibre composite tensile strength (mechanical strength) is varied from 36.42 to 44.62MPa, flexural strength varied from 47.86 to 59.684MPa, and impact strength varied from 0.5 to 3.5J. After the 8^th hour of monitoring the composite samples are attained constant values on both water and chemical absorption studies. By utilizing thermogravimetric analysis, x-ray diffraction method, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy method the essential functional groups present in the hyacinth composites are identified. Based on the final experiment results the hyacinth fibre composite is highly recommended to the usage of profit oriented products.