An Experimental Analysis of the Insulation Capacity of Water Hyacinth Powder Composites with IR Radiation

Abstract

Energy usage in the building sector accounts for about 60% of the world’s energy consumption. Insulating the roofs and walls of buildings is gaining much importance since they are considered a passive cooling technique. Insulating the roofs is promising because 40% of the heat load is through the roofs. This paper explores the possibility of making the insulation panels with water hyacinth, which is a weed in all water bodies. An experimental analysis is conducted to find the possibility of plastic waste like PE mix (Polyethylene) as a binding material for water hyacinth powder to prepare the panels without altering its temperature reducing potential. Two samples of (1) Water hyacinth powder (2) powder of PE mix+Water hyacinths are prepared to study their thermal insulation characteristics under constant heat source by IR radiation. It was observed that the water hyacinth powder alone can give an average temperature reduction of 30.3%. Heat flux reduces significantly between the top and bottom surface of the water hyacinth+PE mix sample tested. Sample made of water hyacinth+PE mix shows an average temperature reduction of 28.9%. By adding PE mix with water hyacinth which can be considered as a binding material, the temperature mitigating capacity of water hyacinth is not much altered (1.1%). Hence, the findings of this work can be considered a passive cooling technique for green buildings with the added advantage of reducing water hyacinth and plastic wastes.

Keywords: Water hyacinth, PE mix, Insulation, Passive cooling, Temperature reduction