Rice Straw for Energy Baseline Study

Rice is the staple food for more than half of the human population. As an agricultural residue, more than 600 million tons of rice straw are produced yearly in Asia. In many countries of the world this straw is field burned after harvest. Not only is this practice polluting the environment but it is also a waste of potential revenues and energy. Alone for Southeast Asia, there is a potential quantity of 198 million tons of rice straw available. On a conservative attempt the average lower heating value is 14 MJ/kg. The amount of energy available from this rice straw is equivalent to 2772 PJ or 13.5% of the total primary energy supply in Southeast Asia. If the straw could be used for energy production, there would be some benefits. One is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution caused by field burning and anaerobic mineralization. Another is the reduction of traditional biomass use and therefore a decrease of deforestation. Additionally, the straw would gain a certain value which can increase the income on the farm level. The abundance of rice straw is overshadowed by its problematic handling and fuel characteristics. Experience has shown, that the adaption of existing  technologies is not necessarily successful for this kind of biomass. Hohenheim University and the International Rice Research Institute focus on a mutual, holistic concept for the utilization of rice straw, including thermo- and bio-chemical conversion processes, the required pre-treatments and logistics. To identify the state of the art, data gaps and promising research-fields, a baseline-study is beeing conducted. This study aims at shaping future research-efforts by the project partners, serves as basis for future project applications and  the acquisition of research funds.