Rice Straw Biogas Hub

大米是全球排名第一的粮食作物：91%的大米是在亚洲生产和消费的，它是世界上一半以上人口的主食。然而，我们每吃一公斤大米，也会生产一公斤稻草。不要把稻壳和稻壳搞混了，稻壳覆盖着稻谷，被送到磨坊去。稻秆和稻叶在收获后留在地里。水稻秸秆很难从水田中清除，这些水田经常被洪水淹没，而且位于偏远地区。它的二氧化硅含量很高，因此不能作为燃料或动物饲料。由于退化缓慢且温室气体排放高，它也不适合在淹水的稻田中使用，因此燃烧是农民清理田地的主要选择。在整个亚洲，每年有惊人的3亿吨稻草变成烟雾，释放出致命的气体和黑碳混合物，使呼吸系统疾病增加的风险增加三倍，并加速气候变化。稻米的排放量占全球农作物排放量的48%，比全球航空业的二氧化碳排放量总和还要多。IFPRI最近的一项研究计算出，仅在北印度，每年焚烧农作物秸秆的健康成本就高达300亿美元，五年内将上升到1900亿美元。为了解决这一危机，2016年成立了一家名为Straw Innovations Ltd的英国中小企业，作为该主题开创性国际研究的分拆公司。该公司的创始人克雷格·贾米森（Craig Jamieson）组建了财团，并获得了Energy Catalyst的共同资金，在菲律宾建立了一个工业试验工厂，收集稻草并发酵，生产清洁燃烧的甲烷气体。整个系统必须特别设计，因为现有的技术都不适合这一目的。该工厂现已投入运营，并取得了许多技术经济上的突破。当地农民大力支持该项目，并正在等待扩大规模，以便他们能够从其高效、清洁的能源服务中受益。水稻被称为“贫困作物”，因为农民经常难以负担能源密集型设备，而这些设备可以提高产量，增加作物的价值。因此，该项目将展示一个完整的系统，包括500公顷的收获、秸秆去除、沼气驱动的大米干燥和储存，以及高效的碾磨。“稻秆沼气中心”将为稻农提供价格合理、增值的商业服务，避免他们购买和维护昂贵的设备，使他们的收入增加两倍，同时保护环境。

Rice is the number 1 food crop globally: 91% of it is produced and consumed in Asia and it is the staple for more than half the world's population. However, for every kilogram of rice we eat, a kilo of straw is also produced. Not to be confused with husks, which cover the grains and are taken to a mill, the stems and leaves of the rice plant are left in the fields after harvest. Rice straw is difficult to remove from paddy fields, which are often flooded and in remote areas. It is high in silica, making it a poor fuel or animal feed.It is also not suitable to incorporate into flooded rice fields due to slow degradation and high greenhouse gas emissions, so burning is farmers' main option for clearing fields. Across Asia, a staggering 300 million tonnes of rice straw go up in smoke every year, releasing a lethal cocktail of gases and black carbon that triple risks of increased respiratory diseases and accelerate climate change. Rice is responsible for 48% of global crop emissions: more CO2e than the whole global aviation industry combined. A recent IFPRI study calculated the health costs of crop residue burning to be $30 billion annually in North India alone, rising to $190 billion in five years.To address this crisis a British SME, Straw Innovations Ltd, was started in 2016 as a spin-out from pioneering international research on the subject. The company's founder, Craig Jamieson, assembled consortia and secured Energy Catalyst co-funding to establish an industrial pilot plant in the Philippines, collecting rice straw and fermenting it to produce clean-burning methane gas. The whole system had to be specially designed since no existing technologies were suitable for the purpose.The plant is now operational, with many techno-economic breakthroughs. Local farmers strongly support it and are waiting for scale-up so they can benefit from its efficient, clean energy services. Rice is known as a "Poverty Crop" because farmers often struggle to afford energy-intensive equipment that could improve their yields add value to their crop. Therefore, this project will demonstrate a complete system of 500ha harvesting, straw removal, biogas-powered rice drying and storage plus efficient milling. The "Rice Straw Biogas Hub" will offer these as affordable, value-adding commercial services to the rice farmers, avoiding their need to buy and maintain expensive equipment, and enabling them to triple incomes whilst protecting the environment.