Rice Straw Biogas Hub

大米是全球头号粮食作物：91%的大米在亚洲生产和消费，是世界一半以上人口的主食。然而，我们每吃一公斤大米，就会产生一公斤稻草。不要与谷壳混淆，谷壳覆盖谷物并被带到磨坊，水稻植株的茎和叶在收获后留在田里。稻草很难从稻田中移走，因为稻田经常被洪水淹没，而且在偏远地区。它的二氧化硅含量很高，不是一种很好的燃料或动物饲料。由于降解缓慢和温室气体排放高，也不适合加入洪水泛滥的稻田，所以燃烧是农民开垦田地的主要选择。在整个亚洲，每年有惊人的3亿吨稻草化为烟雾，释放出致命的气体和黑碳混合物，增加呼吸道疾病的风险两倍，并加速气候变化。水稻排放的二氧化碳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，仅在印度北部，每年焚烧农作物残渣的健康成本就高达300亿美元，在五年内上升到1900亿美元。为了应对这场危机，英国中小企业稻草创新有限公司成立于2016年，是该主题的开创性国际研究的衍生产品。该公司创始人克雷格·贾米森(Craig Jamieson)组建了财团，并获得了Energy Catalyst的联合资金，在菲律宾建立了一个工业中试工厂，收集稻草并发酵生产清洁燃烧的甲烷气体。整个系统必须经过特别设计，因为现有的技术都不适用于该用途。该工厂现已投入运营，在技术经济上取得了许多突破。当地农民强烈支持它，并等待扩大规模，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得起能源密集型设备，这些设备可以提高他们的产量，增加他们的作物价值。因此，该项目将示范500公顷收获、秸秆清除、沼气水稻干燥和储存以及高效碾磨的完整系统。“稻草沼气中心”将为稻农提供负担得起的增值商业服务，避免他们购买和维护昂贵的设备，并使他们在保护环境的同时将收入增加两倍。

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.