A WATER HYACINTH FIBER AND PULP EXTRACTION SYSTEM

The prototype of the research entitled， Water Hyacinth Fiber and Pulp Extracting system aims on developing a water hyacinth drying， flattening and ginning system through the use of Arduino Uno. Samples were gathered at a water hyacinth farm in Rizal to be used for further testing of the prototype. The Arduino Uno R3 was used to send instructions to each module by the use of buttons that will state the specific instruction. Modules indicated for the system are blower fan， heating filament， motor used as a pulley， and constructed conveyor. Solid-state relays acts as a switch for each module which will be activated by the command in the Arduino. Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328P programmed using C language for its commands and the output text were displayed at a 20x4 Liquid Crystal Display(LCD). This whole process was encased in a stainless steel casing with a heat tempered glass for vision of the process. The prototype is estimated to heat up around 900 stalks per batch and/or day by heating it at around 3 hrs. Per session. Overall the prototype demonstrated production of heat to be used for the drying of the stalks， pulley for the transfer of stalks， conveyor for flattening and of course， ginning while being monitored through the LCD.