Forum to tackle rice husk-fired power plants

The bright prospects of investing in the establishment of rice husk-fired power plants will be the focus of discussions in a forum at the Manila Hotel on Aug.22.

Expected to attend the investment forum are prospective investors like rice millers, local government units, commercial banks, electric cooperatives and other stakeholders as well as officials of government and non-government agencies concerned with solid waste management and utilization.

Among the key personalities who will attend the forum are Juan Jose Echanove, program officer of the European Commission (EC) delegation to the Philippines, and Christopher Zamora, co-director of the ASEAN Center for Energy Facility in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The forum will be the culminating activity of a project at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) funded by the EC-ASEAN Energy Facility (EAEF), which surveyed 381 rice mills in the country’s top 20 rice-producing provinces. Results of the survey enabled PhilRice researchers to make 10 feasibility studies on the establishment of rice husk-fired power plants in 10 sites.

PhilRice executive director Leocadio Sebastian said that instead of being wasted, the voluminous amount of rice husks produced by rice mills in the top 20 producing provinces alone could save the country from spending billions of pesos on diesel oil every month if these are used to generate heat and electricity.

It is estimated that 1,389,888 liters of imported diesel oil worth 50,939,395.20 would be saved per hour even if only the rice husks produced by the 381 mills alone were used for energy generation.

The daily savings would be P611,272,742.40 if the price of diesel is 36.65 a liter. In a 22-day operation a month, the savings would be a staggering P13.45 billion. It would run to P161.37 billion in one year and could be much more with the increasing cost of diesel fuel nowadays.

In 2005 alone, the country produced 3.14 million metric tons of rice husks, which could generate more than 2,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity. This amount of energy is more than enough to electrify a large city in one year.

Dr. Bernardo D. Tadeo, coordinator of the EAEF-funded project at PhilRice, said the 10 feasibility studies have found that 1.5 to 9.9 megawatt (MW) rice husk-fired power plants could be established depending on the amount of rice husks generated in a particular site.

For instance, a 9.9-MW power plant is recommended for Cabatuan, Isabela and San Jose City, Nueva Ecija. On the other hand, a 6.5-MW power plant was found feasible for Camarines Sur, while a 5.2-MW power plant is being eyed for South Cotabato covering rice mills in Koronadal City and in the towns of Surallah, Norallah, Sto Niño, Banga and Tantangan.

The Camarines Sur power plant is suggested to service rice mills in Naga City and in the towns of Calabanga, Pili, Baao, Canaman and Magarao among others.

A 3.5-MW power plant is suggested for Occidental Mindoro. Likewise, 2.5-MW rice husk-fired power plants are feasible for Iloilo, Oliver Enterprises in Talavera, Nueva Ecija, and Sta. Rita Rice Mill in the Science City of Munoz, Nueva Ecija, and Marcella Farms in Bohol. A 1.5-MW power plant is also recommended for Narra, Palawan.

It is expected that much of the energy generated by these power plants will be sold to the grid, as it will be more than enough for the needs of the rice mills.

Although these power plants would require an investment of hundreds of millions of pesos, the investment could be paid back in about four years. More than that, the rice millers would be saved from recurring blackouts and outages, which frequently disrupt milling operations.