Rice Husks + Innovation = Renewable Energy

India has been found to be particularly fertile ground for experimentation with renewable energy initiatives. The latest version of Ernst & Young’s “Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index” reaffirms this fact, ranking India as the third most attractive market for renewable energy investment:

India’s rise to third overall … has been precipitated by excellent national and regional government support for both foreign and local investment in renewable technologies. Consequently, rapid growth is expected to continue in this market.

The report goes on to note that “installed renewables capacity in India – currently standing at 8GW – is now expected to double every five years, and is forecast to reach 20GW by 2012, twice the government’s target.”

One new venture in this space is Husk Power Systems, which aims to “provide power to millions of rural Indians in a financially sustainable, scalable, environmentally friendly, and profitable manner.” Starting with villages in Bihar, HPS has developed a viable business model for generating power from agricultural residue, namely rice husks. How does the system work?

The organization has developed a distributed power supply and distribution system that uses 35-100kW “mini power- plants” in villages of 200-500 households within the Indian “Rice Belt” and offers electricity as a pay-for-use service.

In addition to power generation, rice husks have additional income-generation utility, as 1) the ash produced by burning the rice husks can be “converted into a valuable ingredient for cement production,” and 2) the rice husk generators can potentially be paid for reducing carbon emissions through a trading program established by the Kyoto Protocol. The result, then, according to innovators Ransler and Sinha, is the multi-fold:

Even with conservative electricity consumption, revenue from the three sources would allow each rice husk generator to break even in about two and a half years, and it would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 200 tons per year, per village. Furthermore, explained Ransler, a lack of reliable electricity is one of the biggest obstacles to small business growth in rural India, so providing a village with rice-husk power can be the enabler of a dozen other small business ventures.

What can we expect from the future? Currently, there are 2 villages in Bihar operating on the HPS model, with plans to expand to 20 villages in 2008, 100 in 2009, and 2500 by 2013.

Source: Rural Development of India

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13 Comments

  1. ajay kumar agarwala
    Posted July 10, 2008 at 6:04 pm | Permalink

    i want to start power production unit in west
    bengal througt paddy husk base for power supply to general publick

  2. Mahesh
    Posted August 14, 2008 at 12:52 pm | Permalink

    I am looking for this kind of alternative and being from Rice belt, in India, would be very much interested in getting to know more on the technology and how it can be utilised. I am open for the possibilities this can create for power hungry people in the area where 8-12 hours of the daily power is normally off.

  3. manoj
    Posted August 14, 2008 at 1:22 pm | Permalink

    want to start power production unit in west
    bengal througt paddy husk base for power supply to general publick

  4. zafarullah Jalbani
    Posted August 22, 2008 at 12:48 am | Permalink

    I want to produce ethanol from rice gusk and want to use in vehicles so will u help me

  5. oladayo
    Posted August 29, 2008 at 12:42 pm | Permalink

    please i am open to ideas on how to produce ethanol from rice husk. please i will be glad if you help as i have access to more than abundant rice husk in my village and i understand that there is a technology for production.

  6. Posted October 20, 2008 at 2:32 am | Permalink

    salam brother.
    Actually im in final year so i selected for thesis topic is energy resources from rice husk/hull so if u have any knnolege about it plz saire with me

  7. harsh
    Posted July 13, 2009 at 1:45 am | Permalink

    thank you for the wonderful article.we are into rice production in the state of jharkhand and i am very much intersted in this project.i would like to know more details on this like cost of setting up and technological details.

  8. S.K. Kamati
    Posted September 21, 2009 at 1:11 am | Permalink

    Dear Sir, presently i am working with 90MW coal based power plant, i want to start power production unit from rice husk in my native place in bihar. So, kindly send a complete project report to put a plant.
    thanks, S.K. Kamati

  9. SANTHU KONATHALA
    Posted September 30, 2009 at 6:24 am | Permalink

    DEAR SIR, I WANT TO START RICE HUSK BASED POWER PLANT IN MY NATIVE AT VISAKHAPATNAM(RURAL) OF CAPACITY OF 5MW.SO, PLEASE SEND FULL DETAILED PROJECT REPORT FOR ESTABLISHING NEW PLANT.THANKING U SIR

  10. Vineet Dixena
    Posted October 2, 2009 at 8:29 am | Permalink

    Dear Sir,
    I belong to chhattisgarh where rice husk are easily available in huge quantity. i want to install a power plant based on rice husk upto 5MW capacity. So please guide me for the same.

  11. Posted October 24, 2009 at 1:28 am | Permalink

    Are you looking for an appropriate technology for an alternative fuel?

    We provide Rice husk technology for:

    - Household cooking

    - Industrial Cooking, Frying and Heating

    - Power Generation

    - Baking and Dehydration

    - Drying

    - Supplying Heat to kiln & Steam Boiler

    - etc

    We also provide technology for other Bio-waste products, such as coconut husks, coco peat, saw dust, wood chunks and etc.

    you can visit site: http://www.Crhet.org
    ricehusktech.co.cc

    Contact details:

    Engr. Alexis Belonio

    Email:

    Mr. Bima Tahar

    Email:

    Cell number: 62-818611718

    Mr. Michael Belonio

    Email:

    Cell number: -2

    Address: K2-7 Taman Techno Park, BSD City, Serpong, Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia

  12. sumit
    Posted January 18, 2011 at 1:26 am | Permalink

    anek vishayon par PIL filing kee aawashyakta hai, maine kuchh yojnaayen banaayi hain; kya aapme se koi hai jo inme se kuchh/jaise kisee ek PIL ko file kare, kyonki saamaajik kaaryon me lok-sahbhaagitaa aawashyak hoti hai, pratyaksh call Karen sumit 91- Bhopal

  13. Pak Irwan Suryoto
    Posted February 10, 2011 at 9:10 pm | Permalink

    Apakah Anda mencari teknologi bahan bakar alternatif yang cocok?

    Kami menyediakan teknologi sekam padi:
    - Home Cooking
    - memasak Industri, penggorengan dan pemanasan
    - Pembangkitan Listrik
    - Baking dan dehidrasi
    - Pengeringan
    - Steam boiler dan tungku pemanas
    - Dll

    Kami juga produk-produk limbah biologis lainnya seperti tempurung kelapa, sabut kelapa, teknologi, serbuk gergaji, kayu, dll

    Dapat mengunjungi situs Web http://www.ricehusktech.co.cc

    Kontak:
    Pak Michael
    E-mail:
    Sel nomor: -2

    Alamat: Kota K2 7 Taman Taman Ilmu, BSD, Serpong, Wendeng,

2 Trackbacks

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