Enhanced Rice Straw Biogas

稻草是世界上仅次于甘蔗渣和玉米秸秆的第三大生物质资源。与稻壳（覆盖谷物并被带到米尔斯）不同，稻草在收获后被留在田地里，并且很少有主要用途被确定，因此在亚洲，每年有超过3亿吨的稻草被作为废物焚烧。到目前为止，试图以盈利的方式收集和使用它作为清洁能源几乎都失败了。2013年，克雷格贾米森召集并领导了一个来自菲律宾总部国际水稻研究所（IRRI）和英国Supergen生物能源中心的科学家团队，以更好地了解为什么如此巨大的资源被浪费。IRRI-SUPERGEN“稻草能源项目”在英国政府资助下运行了3年。当该项目于2016年结束时，克雷格随后在能源催化剂第四轮的共同资助下创办了Straw Innovations Ltd。由Straw Innovations牵头，在Supergen生物能源中心（阿斯顿大学）、南安普顿大学和QUBE Renewables的支持下，在菲律宾建立了一个开创性的1000立方米测试设施。为期3年的“中期”项目将于2020年2月结束，因此第二个“中期”项目将继续并扩大其工作，重点是三个关键创新：使用不同设计的联合收割机试验一种同时收割稻谷和秸秆的新方法，并对其进行改造以捕获秸秆。这将比目前的收获方案成本更低，并将通过免费清除秸秆来为农民解决秸秆管理问题。使用生物预处理和生物炭添加，以比现有技术更低的成本加速沼气生产。使用秸秆的热量为农民干燥水稻，减少损失，并使其能够以更高的价格出售，与农民分享这些利润这些创新将使稻草生物能源生产的成本减半，使其以新的商业模式提供给稻农，并准备扩大规模。全球有1.5亿小规模稻农，这种方法可以将无处不在的废物转化为清洁、可靠和负担得起的能源，供其生产和家庭使用。

Rice straw is the third largest biomass resource in the world, after sugar cane bagasse and maize stover. Unlike rice husks (that cover the grain and are taken to rice mills), rice straw gets left in the field after harvest and few major uses have been identified for it, so across Asia more than 300 million tonnes of it are simply burned each year as waste. To date, attempts to profitably collect and use it for clean energy have almost all failed. In 2013, Craig Jamieson brought together and led a team of scientists from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in their Philippines headquarters and the Supergen Bioenergy Hub in the UK to better understand why such a vast resource is being wasted. The IRRI-SUPERGEN "Rice Straw Energy Project" ran for 3 years, funded under the UK Government. When that project ended in 2016, Craig then started Straw Innovations Ltd with co-funding from Energy Catalyst Round 4. A pioneering 1000m3 test facility has been set up in the Philippines, led by Straw Innovations, with support from the Supergen Bioenergy Hub (Aston University), University of Southampton and QUBE Renewables. That 3-year, "mid stage" project ends in February 2020, so this second "mid-stage" project will continue and extend its work, focusing on three key innovations:Trialing a novel way to harvest rice grains and straw simultaneously using a different design of combine harvester and adaptating it to capture the straw. This will be lower cost than current harvesting options and will save farmers problems with straw management by removing it free of chargeUsing biological pre-treatments and biochar addition to accelerate biogas production at lower cost than current state of the artUsing heat from the straw to dry rice for the farmers, reducing losses and enabling it to be sold later at a higher price, sharing those profits with the farmersThese innovations will halve the cost of rice straw bioenergy production, making it available to rice farmers in a new business model, ready for scaling up. There are 150 million small-scale rice farmers globally and this approach could convert a ubiquitous waste into a source of clean, reliable and affordable energy for their productive and domestic use.