Development and Evaluation of a Blower for Chopped Water Hyacinth

Abstract

A blower was developed, fabricated and evaluated for blowing of chopped water hyacinth. The diameter, width and thickness of the casing of the blower were 0.70 m, 0.23 m and 3 mm respectively. Six radial blades of 4 mm thickness were fixed with blades arm of 0.275 m long, 38.1 x 6.35 mm angle bar. These angle bar were bolted to the back plate of thickness 20 mm. A conveyor was used to feed the material directly into the blower. Blowing operation was done at different speeds and feed rates. Regression analysis of total no-load power for operating the blower and total power for blowing chopped hyacinth were done. The capacity of the blower was 10.8 tons/hour at 180 kg/min feed rate and 1002 RPM. The total power consumption in blowing was 7.23 kW with equivalent amount of energy of 0.67 kWh/ton. The overall efficiency of the blower was 20.35 percent.