Title of Invention

"A MECHANICAL SYSTEM FOR CHOPPING AND CRUSHING OF WATER HYACINTH PLANTS"

Abstract

A mechanical system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth comprises a frame accommodating a hopper (22) disposed with a cutting cylinder (2) and a shear plate (3) at its bottom for cutting the plants, characterized by crushing cylinder and a pressing roller provided under the hopper (22) for crushing of the plants and a delivery conveyor belt (10) for delivery of the chopped and crushed plants to a transporting unit.

Full Text

FIELD OF INVNETION This invention relates to a mechanical system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth. Prior Art; Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart. )Solms) is the most predominant persistent and troublesome aquatic weed in the world and has posed ecological and economical problems in several countries. Utilization of water hyacinth as animal feed, as a fuel, handicrafts, furniture, biogas, compost, pollution abatement and paper pulp has been done. However, one of the major problems faced was bulk and the cost of transportation of freshly harvested water hyacinth from water bodies to the factories. Hence the major objectives were to determine the physical and bulk mechanical properties of water hyacinth and to evaluate the suitability of available choppers/crushers for water hyacinth. The matured water hyacinth plant (Eichhornia crassipes) consists of long fibrous roots which may be up to three meters in length, rhizomes, buoyant petioles, stolons, leaves, inflorescence and fruit clusters. The petioles are the leaf stems and the stolons are the runners, which form new plants. The inflorescence bears between 6 and 120 lily like violet and yellow flowers most commonly between 8 and 15. Like most flowers, which are at their best when the soil is impoverished, water hyacinth has the best flowers when the nutrients in water are in short supply. The fruit is a capsule, containing up to 450 seeds. Altogether, the plant can grow up to a meter high. Water hyacinth plant has shiny dark green leaves. Water hyacinths grow over wide variety of wetland types from lakes, streams, ponds, waterways, ditches, and backwater areas. This free floating fresh water plant has spread from tropical South America to at least fifty countries around the world. The plant originated in the rich and diverse rain forests of the Amazon River, Basin and was introduced into many parts of the world as an ornamental garden pond plant owing to its beauty in India it was first introduced as an ornamental plant in 1896 from Brazil (Aquaphyte, 2001). It spreads over 5, 00, 000 hectares of water among the states of Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Orissa. In India water hyacinth is known by different names such as Jalkumbhi, Falkumbi, Shokh Samunder (Hindi), Pisachi Thanana (Tamil), Kachuripuri (Bengali) and Kulavali (Kannada). It is particularly suited to tropical and sub tropical countries where environmental conditions favour a year round growing period and has become a problem plant in areas of Southern USA, South America, East, West & Southern Africa, South-East Asia and Australia. The capacity of water hyacinth to grow and reproduce is phenomenal and in one growing season 25 plants can give rise to 2 million plants, covering one hact. and weight as much as a fully loaded Jumbo Jet (Lindsey and Hirt, 1999). The natural loss of water from the water surface by evaporation is thought to increase through transpiration from the leaves of water hyacinth by at least 40 to 50 percent (Lindsey and Hirt 1999.) Due to this, some times it is called "Shokh Samunder" in India. The oxygen depleting load of one hact. of water hyacinth mat is equivalent to the sewage created by 80 persons (Gopal and Sharma, 1981). This action lowers the natural ability of water body to absorb organic pollution and create septic and odorous conditions. Over the years, various control methods have been studied and tried including chemical, biological and mechanical means but with no lasting success. It is effective and relatively cheaper than the mechanical and manual control. However, their long-term effects on the environment are unknown and sprayed plants were left to rot in the water causing pollution and aggravated entrophication. The plants cannot be completely controlled by biological method. Control by mechanical and manual harvesting has been widely practiced in many countries. The simplest mechanical method of control would be to chop the water hyacinth in situ and leave it to rot in the water. This, however, has two main drawbacks: The plant is wasted (not utilized) In the process of decay, the chopped plant extracts oxygen from the water causing suffocation to animal life in water body. A major contributory factor to the failure of water hyacinth machinery is the large volume and moisture content of water hyacinth, which slows down the harvesting operation by increasing requirement for handling, transport and cuts down harvester productivity with increased harvesting cost. It also limits effective utilization due to low dry matter content and high drying equipment costs. Water hyacinth removed in large quantities from water body can be transported easily when chopped and crushed to higher densities. Packaging to higher density than the conventional bale reduce the problem of transportation, storage space and provides better flow characteristics during material handing (Ferrero et. al. 1999). Chopping and compacting have been proposed as means of reducing volume or increasing density for easy handling and transportation of forage plants (Ferrero et al. 1991). Generally flail, flywheel and cylindrical types of choppers are used for forage chopping. Bernaki et al. (1972) stated that in a flail type forage chopper, the accuracy of chopping was worse for cutting fresh corn stalks. Bernaki also studied on flywheel chopper and cylindrical chopper and finally concluded that the cylindrical chopper was in many respects functionally better than flywheel one. Kanafojski and Karwowski (1976) studied the energetic of knife-type choppers. It was also concluded that the power requirement for a cylindrical type chopper was approximately 7 percent lower in case of flywheel type chopper under identical working conditions. Bangall (1982) worked on fresh water hyacinth and he reported that compression to 400 Kg/m3 required 2.4-watt-h/t and 800 Kg/m3 required7.8 watt-h/t energy respectively. O'Dougherty (1982) concluded that the blades used in forage chopping should have a blade angle in the range of 30° to 40° with a rake angle of 10 to 20° cutting up to the speeds of 30 m/s. The review shows that the power loss due to the water resistance and mechanical losses were high in flail type of cutters and also the accuracy of cutting was worse. Crushing and pressing of plants is one of the commonly used methods for expressing appreciable amount of plants juice (Calilung, 1990). However, several investigators have explored more intensive crushing of alfalfa and other forage crops (Chancellor, 1955, 1964 and Spencer et al., 1969). Under intensive crushing treatments. 50 per cent of the initial moisture and an appreciable amount of the soluble dry matter may be removed from the harvested material as the liquid fraction. Rollers, piston extrusion, cone press and screw presses are the most commonly used equipments used for crushing of fibrous agricultural products. The power requirement for a cylinder type of chopper is approximately 7 percent lower than in case in flywheel type chopper under identical conditions. Therefore, cylindrical choppers can be selected for chopping of water hyacinth for volume reduction over conventional flail and flywheel types of choppers. The review also suggested that chopping and biomass reduction are two separate processes. The review indicates that the most attractive alternative for solving the water hyacinth problem is integrated harvesting and utilization, which offers potential benefits in terms of generation of useful products (AQUAPHYTE, 2001: Mathur et al,, 2003). The mechanical mean is the only safe and rapid method to control the growth of water hyacinth but the disposal costs are high because of its bulk. In order to solve this problem, water hyacinth has to be chopped and crushed. The chopped and crushed plants will not allow water hyacinth to re-grow. US 5,487. 258 discloses A system for the harvest of water hyacinths. The floating hyacinths are conveyed from their surface disposed growing disposition to a grinder. Grinding occurs with liberation of large amount of the plant contained water and exposure of the hyacinths' fibrous plant material which only becomes suitable for baling after grinding has occurred. Thereafter, the hyacinths' fibrous material is placed into a conventional baler where the now ground plant material adheres when baled into a cohesive mass. The baled fibrous material is then disposed of. For example, the baled material can be attached to rope, and pushed into the water with bales being serially attached one to another via the rope. One end of the rope is led ashore. Thereafter, the serially tethered bales are pulled floating from harvesting barge to a shore location where conventional removal of the compacted and baled fibrous biomass can occur. In one embodiment, the bales are further compacted on the shore before transport for fuel or other uses. In another embodiment, a shore mounted facility accumulates, grinds and bales the water hyacinth. Weighting of the bales for disposal by sinking is disclosed. CN 1544165 discloses A ship-carried Eichhornia crassipes solm automatic dehydrator, composed of salvage and transportation system, dehydrating system and purifying system. The salvage is completed by salvage and transportation system, and it can implement extensive-depth salvage procedure by depth adjusting rod. The hole conveyer belt can eliminate most adhesive water in the transporting course. The dehydrating system can meet the dehydrating requirements at different degrees by roller adjusting rod. The emersion water can achieve national land water effluent standard through many layers of different-aperture nylon filter net and sand filter, implement discharging without pollution. US 5, 603, 204 discloses Floating aquatic vegetation harvested from the surface of a body of water. The vegetation is chopped or shredded when floating in situ on the body of water. The vegetation is then removed from the water surface. The chopping, shredding, tearing or other action breaks down the structure of the plants or subdivides them into smaller parts. This reduces the structure of the plant and allows it to be compacted to a much higher density mass so that it can be handled more readily. The apparatus for harvesting the vegetation includes a self-propelled vessel. A shredding head is carried on the vessel for shredding the vegetation as the platform advances theracross and removing the shredded vegetation from the surface of the body of water. The vegetation shredding means are two rotors arranged in a shallow V arrangement across the front end of the vessel, with the point of the V directed forwardly, in the direction of travel. Rotors arranged in this way assist with the positive tracking of the platform. When rotated so that the bottom of the rotor travels towards the rear, and the top towards the front, the vegetation is directed towards the center of the vessel, behind the rotors, in a windrow for subsequent pickup. The V configuration also limits dispersion of the vegetation around he ends of the rotors. The rotors are covered on the top and ends by a shroud. This assists in preventing dispersal of the rent material and serves as part of the collecting system. The above cited documents deal with the water hyacinth till the harvesting. Further, it is known to have a provision for dumping of chopped hyacinth at the lake shore, which leads to formation of a heap. This causes environmental pollution as the chopped plants extract oxygen from water affecting adversely animal lives. Further, in case of suitable ground condition i.e. muddy or watery ground, the chopped plants can regrow. Yet further, due to large volume of the plants, transportation of the same is expensive. Further, a device is known to have been provided in the art which comprises a boat loaded with a grinder to grind the plants collected from the water surface to a paste, from which water cann't be separated. The disadvantage associated with the above is that, water becomes unsuitable to drink upon getting mixed with the lake (after release from grinding of water hyacinth). The chopped plants can be crushed by a screw conveyor. However, the same is associated with several disadvantages as listed below: i. It is time dependent i.e. it consumes a lot of time. ii. Crushed water hyacinth causes chocking of holes and outlets of the barrel of the screw. iii. The plants travel a long distance, which causes chocking of fibrous roots in the barrel hole and at the out let of the screw auger. In cylinder type chopper, chopping may be effective but crushing can't be coupled with screw auger which requires forced feeding and having low capacity and does not match with the chopping speed of the cutting cylinders causing a bridging effect at the inlet of the screw. OBJECTS OF THE INVNETION An object of the present invention is to propose a system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth which is installed at the shore or on the harvester from which crushed plants can be taken to site for reuse. Another object of the present invention is to propose a system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth which prevents regrowth of the plants. Further object of the present invention is to propose a system for chopping arid crushing of water hyacinth which reduces volume of the plants by 65-70% resulting in reduction of cost for transportation. Still another object of the present invention is to propose a system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth which can be reused for various applications. Yet another objection of the present invention is to propose a system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth which does not cause environmental pollution. Still another further object of the present invention is to propose a system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth which is cost effective and efficient. Yet further object of the present invention is to propose a system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth which consumes less in put power. Further object of the present invention is to propose a system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth which is simple in construction. Still another object of the present invention is to propose a system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth which deals with the plants after harvesting of the same. Another object of the present invention is to propose a system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth which is easy to operate. Yet another object of the present invention is to propose a system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth which can be mounted on boat harvester. Further another object of the present invention is to propose a system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth which can be automatic and is having high capacity. STATEMENT OF INVENTION According to this invention there is provided A mechanical system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth comprises a frame accommodating a hopper (22) disposed with a cutting cylinder (2) and a shear plate (3) at its bottom for cutting the plants, characterized by crushing cylinder and a pressing roller provided under the hopper (22) for crushing of the plants and a delivery conveyor belt (10) for delivery of the chopped and crushed plants to a transporting unit. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWING Further objects and advantages of this invention will be more apparent from the ensuing description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing and wherein: Fig. 1 shows: front elevation of system of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWING The system of present invention as shown in fig. 1 may comprise a conveyor system to transport the Hyacinth plants to a main hopper (1). The conveyor system comprises a hopper (22) to admit plants therein. A conveyor belt (10) is provided between two rollers (8 and 9) to deliver the plants into the main hopper (1). Further, the conveyor system comprises a chain and sprocket system (19) as shown in figure connected to the roller (9) to drive the same. The sprocket (19) is connected to a D.C. motor (20) as the speed of the conveyor system is required to be maintained at low level. The main hopper (1) is provided at its bottom with a cutting roller (2) and a sheer plate (3) maintained at a clearance from each other. A pressing and crushing roller (6 and 5) are provided below the cutting roller (2) for crushing the chopped plants falling from above. Thereafter, chopped and crushed material is delivered to a transporting unit by means of a delivery conveyor (8-10, 15 and 16) disposed below the crushing and pressing rollers. The rollers (9) is provided with an adjusting screw (7) to control the tension in the conveyor belt (10) if required. The driving to the rollers is provided by prime mover (11) provided at the bottom. All the above rollers, hopper etc are mounted on a frame, to which the conveyor system is detachably fixed. The details of different components of the system are as follows: HOPPER;- The hopper is trapezoidal in shape provided with slot in both the side walls and rear wall to facilitate fitting of shear plate (3) against the cutting cylinder (2). CUTTING CYLINDER WITH BLADES; - The cutting cylinder (2) is provided with atleast a set of rings, one at each end of the cylinder detachably mounted with a plurality of blades by means of connecting pieces such as square pieces fixedly held to the ring. Further, a circular plate is provided at each end of the cylinder so as to cover the same. The shear plate (3) is fixedly provided against the rotating cylinder to act as counter cutting edge. The blades and shear plate are preferably made of spring steel for longer life wherein the number of blades can be varied from 12-36 preferably 36. CRUSHING ROLLER:- The crushing roller is provided with a plurality of uniformly distributed corrugations on its periphery for providing positive thrust to flow the chopped material and welded with a plate at each end. PRESSING ROLLER:- The pressing roller is disposed with a rubber lining through out its outer surface rotating against the crushing roller in opposite direction for crushing of chopped material. Provision of rubber lining is made to avoid noise pollution. This roller is also covered by a plate at each end like others. The prime mover (11) drives all the rollers and delivery conveyor through suitable pulleys and v-belts. The DC motor is used to drive the feeding conveyor through chain and sprockets to get a speed ratio of for example 1:6. The electric power required for chopping and crushing increases with the increase in flow rate and speeds of cutting cylinder and crushing roller. The system of the present invention is capable of chopping and crushing the plants in a single pass. The system is covered with safety covers to avoid any accident. The chopped and crushed water hyacinth can be used as animal feed, mulch, compost, a source of pulp for making paper and board, rope, crafts, furnitures, fuel, a medicinal plant and pollution abatement. The system also allows removal of surface and free cell water. It is to be noted that the present invention is susceptible to modifications, adaptations and changes by those skilled in the art. Such variant embodiments employing the concepts and features of this invention are intended to be within the scope of the present invention, which is further set forth under the following claims:- WE CLAIM; 1. A mechanical system for chopping and crushing of water hyacinth comprises a frame accommodating a hopper (22) disposed with a cutting cylinder (2) and a shear plate (3) at its bottom for cutting the plants, characterized by crushing cylinder and a pressing roller provided under the hopper (22) for crushing of the plants and a delivery conveyor belt (10) for delivery of the chopped and crushed plants to a transporting unit. 2. A mechanical system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said system provided with a conveyor system such as herein described for delivering of the plants into the hopper. 3. A mechanical system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the said hopper (22) is provided with slot on side and rear walls with a shear plate (3) fitted therein. 4. A mechanical system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the cutting cylinder (2) is provided with atleast one ring at its each end detachably disposed with a plurality of blades by means of a connecting means fixedly held to the ring. 5. A mechanical system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the blades are 12-36 in number preferably 36. 6. A mechanical system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the cutting cylinder (2) and shear plate (3) are provided with a clearance there between. 7. A mechanical system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the crushing cylinder is provided with uniformly distributed corrugations throughout its surface. 8. A mechanical system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the pressing roller (5 & 6) is provided with a rubber lining throughout its outer surface rotating against the crushing cylinder in opposite direction. 9. A mechanical system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the delivery conveyor (8-10, 15 and 16) comprises a belt (10) around two roller (8 &9) with an adjusting screw (7) disposed with one of the rollers (8 & 9). 10. A mechanical system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein prime mover (11) is for driving the roller (8 & 9) and conveyor mounted on the frame, D.C motor (20) to drive the conveyor system.

Documents:

1967-del-2006-Abstract-(03-08-2011).pdf

1967-del-2006-abstract.pdf

1967-del-2006-Claims-(03-08-2011).pdf

1967-del-2006-claims.pdf

1967-del-2006-Correspondence Others-(03-08-2011).pdf

1967-del-2006-Correspondence Others-(25-04-2012).pdf

1967-del-2006-Correspondence Others-(27-11-2012).pdf

1967-del-2006-correspondence-others-1.pdf

1967-del-2006-correspondence-others.pdf

1967-del-2006-description (complete).pdf

1967-del-2006-drawings.pdf

1967-del-2006-form-1.pdf

1967-del-2006-form-18.pdf

1967-del-2006-form-2.pdf

1967-del-2006-form-26.pdf

1967-del-2006-Form-8-(25-04-2012).pdf

1976-DEL-2006-Abstract-(09-05-2012).pdf

1976-DEL-2006-Claims-(09-05-2012).pdf

1976-DEL-2006-Correspondence Others-(09-05-2012).pdf

1976-DEL-2006-Description (Complete)-(09-05-2012).pdf

1976-DEL-2006-Drawings-(09-05-2012).pdf

1976-DEL-2006-GPA-(09-05-2012).pdf

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