Mexican student seeks to create bioethanol from water hyacinth plant, as he eyes Nobel Prize trip

A Mexican environmental engineering student has developed a formula to create bioethanol from a water hyacinth plant and will see his project presented to the Nobel Prize laureates in Sweden in December.

José Alberto Espejel, a student of environmental engineering at a La Salle University campus in Mexico City, first had the idea of working with water hyacinth, or Eichhornia crassipes, a year ago.

Often considered a highly problematic invasive species outside its native Amazon basin range, the plant is seen as a serious problem for the reduced bodies of water of the Xochimilco canals, Espejel said in an interview with the news agency Xinhua.

Challenged by a school project that sought ways of converting the plant into a useful product, Espejel first looked at a process to obtain biodegradable plastic from it before opting for creating one similar to that which converts corn or sugarcane into ethanol, and extracts fermentable sugars from the plant.

“One of the advantages we have is that the hyacinth is free. At the industrial scale, it could give us a favorable cost-benefit balance,” he told Xinhua.

Espejel’s process is capable of obtaining approximately 20ml of bioethanol per kilogram of water hyacinth. “We’re happy with that for now,” although the student and his faculty advisor, chemical engineer Norma del Rocío Mireles, are working on improving the efficiency of the distillation process.

Espejel is one of 25 scientists aged 18 to 25 who have been invited this year by SIYSS to experience an intense week comprised of scientific activities and cultural exchange, as well as the opportunity to meet the Nobel laureates.

 “The project still needs development, but I am very satisfied and happy with what has been achieved. Going to Sweden and representing Mexico and all of Latin America is an additional incentive,” said Espejel.