10 rice husk-powered power plants eyed across the country

SCIENCE CITY OF MUNOZ — The government is planning to put up 10 rice husk-powered power plants with an aggregate cost of at least P3.4 billion across the country as part of its efforts to tap alternative sources of energy.

The rice husk-fired co-generation power plants, with power-generating capacities of between 1.5 and 10 megawatts, are being eyed in this city, San Jose City and Talavera town, all in Nueva Ecija; Iloilo, Palawan, Isabela, Camarines Sur, Bohol, South Cotabato, and Occidental Mindoro.

Dr. Bernardo Tadeo, project coordinator of the Philippine Rice Institute’s biomass utilization project, said these power plants have a life-cycle cost of P4.30 to P5.95 per kilowatt-hour.

PhilRice is working in tandem with the ASEAN Center for Energy (ACE) and the European Communities ASEAN Energy Facility (EAEF) in tapping rice husk as a viable energy source. The technology, which is used in Japan, is environment-friendly.

Tadeo said feasibility studies on the power plants are expected to be completed next month. A series of development seminars and investment fora is slated to encourage millers to form themselves into groups.

The Jakarta-based ACE has surveyed 832 ricemills in major rice-producing provinces across the country.

The ricemills generate an average of 845 kilograms of rice husks an hour, which could translate into around 480 kilowatt-hours of energy, enough to supply the daily power requirements of a ricemill.

The survey was part of the PhilRice-ACE-EAEF project called "Enhancing the Energy Self-Sufficiency of Rice Mills in the Philippines" which aims to promote appropriate and more efficient use of energy from rice husks.

The EAEF is a program of cooperation between the European Communities and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to facilitate partnerships in developing specific joint projects in the energy sector.

Launched in March 2002, the EAEF also aims to increase the security of energy supply of ASEAN countries and Europe, enhance economic cooperation between the European Union and ASEAN countries, and facilitate the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation up to 2009.

Dr. Leocadio Sebastian, PhilRice executive director, said rice husks, as an energy source, carry a lot of promise.

Five tons of palay generate a ton of rice husks. In 2004 alone, government statistics show that 3.14 million metric tons of rice husks were generated, representing 22 percent of the total paddy production of 14.25 million metric tons.

According to studies, this is equivalent to 1,600 gigawatt-hours of potential energy, which could light a highly urbanized city for a year.

Rice husk disposal is a growing concern since rice husks release greenhouse gases that pollute the air as they decompose.

Researches say rice husks, when burned in the open, wreaks more havoc to the environment, explaining that they could emit unfiltered smoke, carbon dioxide and other gases that could deplete the ozone layer.

Over-carbonized rice husks or the ash, on the other hand, impede the growth of rice planted in the area where it is burned, preventing water from reaching the plant’s roots, thus hampering its growth. Worse, burning kills beneficial microorganisms in the topsoil.

One of the more popular advocates of the use of rice husks for power generation is Sen. Edgardo Angara, who vowed to pursue the project in his home-province of Aurora.

During a recent project briefing in the Senate, Angara said the project could be pilot-tested in Ma. Aurora town, where a ricemill operates, and also in the capital town of Baler, his hometown, where an integrated rice processing complex funded by the Korean government is under construction.

"This is a boon to employment in Aurora," said Angara, a former agriculture secretary.

PhilRice will fast-track the completion of a feasibility study for the construction of a rice husk-powered plant in Aurora, as endorsed by Presidential Adviser on Jobs Generation Arthur Yap.