Rice Husk as Potential Bioethanol Feedstock in Rice Producing Countries

An international team of researchers from the University of Sidney (Australia), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (India) evaluated rice husk as a potential feedstock for bioethanol. Rice husk is a by-product that is separated from the edible part of the rice grain during the milling process.

About half of the rice husk produced from rice mills is usually burned for the generation of steam to drive mechanical milling equipment. However, since it is also reported to have high cellulose and hemi-cellulose contents, rice husk could also be processed for the production of biofuel ethanol.

The use of rice hull as a bioethanol feedstock is particularly attractive in rice producing countries, where abundant amounts of rice husk are generated. In their study, the researchers first presented rice production at the global/regional trends, and "showed how much of this has potential in providing raw material feedstock for the bioethanol industry. They presented a methodology for calculating ethanol yields from rice husk and the global ethanol production potential.  In addition, they looked at how much of this potential ethanol supply (from rice husk) can satisfy biofuel ethanol demand.

Among the results of their study are: (1) the global ethanol production potential from rice husk is estimated to be between 21 Gigaliters and 24 Gigaliters per year, and can potentially satisfy about one-fifth of the global bioethanol demand for an E10 (10% ethanol) blend, (2) among the major rice producing countries, the use of rice husk as a bioethanol feedstock may be advantageous in India and China, where economic growth and demand for energy are rapidly increasing. The full results are published in the journal, Bioenergy Research (URL above).