title: Potential of Eichhornia crassipes for biomass refining.
abstract: Here we explore the utilization of Eichhornia crassipes, commonly known as water hyacinth, as a competitive source of biomass for conversion to fuel. Ecologically, E. crassipes is the most undesirable of a class of noxious and invasive aquatic vegetation. Water hyacinth grows rapidly on the surface of waterways, forming a dense mat which depletes the surrounding environment of essential nutrients. These properties, rarely encountered in other plant systems, are features of an ideal feedstock for renewable biomass. The high characteristic water content limits the range over which the material can be transported; however it also makes E. crassipes a natural substrate for rapid microbial metabolism that can be employed as a potentially effective biological pretreatment technology. We show through a life cycle analysis that water hyacinth is a competitive feedstock with the potential to be produced at a cost of approximately 40 dollars per ton of dry mass.
authors.affiliation: Howard P. Iserman Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180-3590, USA.|Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Production Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA.
authors.forename: Jessica E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hronich
authors.affiliation: Howard P. Iserman Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180-3590, USA. Lealon@rpi.edu.|Center for Future Energy Systems, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA. Lealon@rpi.edu.|Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Production Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA. Lealon@rpi.edu.|Department of Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA. Lealon@rpi.edu.
authors.forename: Lealon
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Howard P. Iserman Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180-3590, USA.|Center for Future Energy Systems, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA.|Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Production Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA.
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Plawsky
authors.affiliation: Howard P. Iserman Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180-3590, USA.|Center for Future Energy Systems, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA.
authors.forename: Henry R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Bungay
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D018533:Biomass; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000737:chemistry / Q000191:economics / Q000378:metabolism; D031806:Eichhornia / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D004736:Energy-Generating Resources / Q000191:economics*