Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
to be anticipated as combustion temperatures are lower than 900 ºC implying that
all the NOx generated will only be from the N-content in the rice husk and not
from the air. It must be noted here that the rice husk power plant performs better
than conventional electricity production even though there are NOx and SO
2
re-
moval equipment (bio-filters) installed in the latter. Both these emissions contrib-
ute to acidification and in addition, NOx contributes to photochemical ozone for-
mation and nutrient enrichment. Thus, the electricity production from rice husk is
better than the conventional electricity production on these counts.
Total Suspended Particulates (TSP) from rice husk energy is quite large when
compared to conventional electricity production. Dust emissions from rice husk
power plant are higher than coal and gas power plants, but slightly less than oil
power plants (Chungsangunsit et al. 2005). It is known from previous research that
rice husk combustion produces significant amounts of particulate matter (Chung-
sangunsit et al. 2005). However, the rice husk power plant had a built-in multi-
cyclone and electrostatic precipitator for dust removal. Hence the dust emissions
were reduced.
The emission reductions achieved with the project were about 14,744 tonnes of
CO
2
equivalent. The project was successfully registered as a CDM project in year
2006 with a 10 years (2001-2011) crediting period.
3.4 Conclusions
In India, a large portion of the electricity production is from fossil fuels causing
concern for energy security as well as environmental emissions of CO
2
, SO
2
and
NOx. Biomass has been proposed as one of the alternative sources of energy
which could offset the use of fossil fuels to a certain extent. This project, with the
usage of rice husk, is especially suitable for India where one-fourth of the worlds
rice is produced. The study shows that the emissions of SO
2
and NOx are lower in
comparison to coal and oil-fired power generation. The emissions of CO
2
from
combustion of rice husk are considered zero since they do not contribute to global
warming. Overall, the study indicates that rice husk has a high potential for use as
a feedstock for electricity production as it performs better than fossil fuels in terms
of environmental emissions.
References
Baruah DC, Jain AK (1998) Distribution of agricultural residues in India. In: Journal of Ag-
ricultural Engineering 35(1):7-12
Beagle EC (1981) Rice husk conversion to Energy. FAO, Rome, Italy
Bhattacharya SC, Joe MA, Kandhekar ZP, Salam A, Shrestha RM (1999) Greenhouse-gas
emission mitigation from the use of agricultural residues: the case of rice husk. In: En-
ergy 24(1): 43-59
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