Rice straw eyed as electricity source

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Can rice straw be a source of electricity?

The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) based in Munoz, Nueva Ecija has signed an agreement with Enertime, a France-based company, to assess the feasibility of using rice straw for power generation, a measure that could significantly help farmers reduce production cost and increase income.

“The cost of petroleum is increasing. So it’s important to develop a new energy system that will serve as an alternative to the non-renewable, highly centralized, and not diversified system. The exact opposite of that is what we’d like to do. That means utilizing local sources of energy,” PhilRice executive director Eufemio Rasco Jr. said.

Rasco noted that the Philippines produces 15.2 million tons of rice that leave behind 11.3 million tons of rice straw a year.

After harvest, farmers usually burn the rice straw in the open field, causing air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide, he said.

Rasco said that to minimize such post-harvest waste, a two-year collaboration with Enertime “will explore the possibility of collecting, transporting, and conditioning rice straw to be used as feedstock or raw material in generating electricity.”

He said the project, titled “Use of Rice Straw as Fuel to Generate Electricity Using Organic Rankine Cycle Technology in the Philippines,” will cover Nueva Ecija and Laguna.

About 10,000 tons of rice straw per year is targeted to be acquired from these major rice-producing provinces for development into energy source, he added.

Under the agreement between PhilRice and Enertime, the latter, a specialist on energy production using renewable resources, will finance the feasibility study under a grant expected from the French Economic Ministry’s Fund for Studies and Private Sector Support Program.

“Enertime will also assess the biomass supply, estimate power plant cost, and help find project investors,” Rasco said.

He said that PhilRice, on the other hand, “will provide rice production data and technical support in collecting and transporting the rice straw, contracting rice straw supply, organizing site visits, and validating sites feasible for biomass energy production.”

“The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) are also part of this project. IRRI will lead the study on biomass supply organization and greenhouse gas mitigation analysis, while UPLB will collect power plant site data and layout for the project,” Rasco said.

This development came amid a study indicating that agriculture is becoming more dependent on fossil fuels and that renewable energy is expected to play an important role in increasing the energy efficiency of agriculture and reducing its reliance on fossil resources, Rasco said.

DA-PhilRice is a government-owned and-controlled corporation that aims to develop high-yielding and cost-reducing technologies so farmers can produce enough rice for all Filipinos.