April 1986 : power from rice husks

First, the use of steam from husk-fired boilers, to provide mechanical power for rice milling or heat for parboiling rice or to generate electricity in power plants, is discussed. Information on eight husk-fired electric power plants in developing countries and on a large (11 MW) husk-fired plant built recently in Louisiana is summarized. Part two of the report is devoted to rice husk gasifier systems. This section reviews: (1) the many potential applications of rice husk gasifier systems (e.g., power for small rice mills, irrigation, and rural electrification); (2) the evolution and state of the art of husk gasifiers (including Chinese throatless gasifiers); (3) ash removal from the gasifiers; (4) gas cleaning trains (cyclones, hot gas filters, wet scrubbers, dry filters, fans and blowers, etc.); (5) use of producer gas from rice husks in spark-ignition and diesel internal combustion engines; and (6) the economics of husk gasification. Finally, technologies for obtaining power from rice husks via Stirling external combustion engines are briefly discussed.