Energy from Rice Straw

该项目将利用稻草，这是目前在南亚和东南亚集约化水稻系统中造成环境问题的废物材料，并展示将其转化为有用能源的可行性。这项研究将侧重于解决稻草作为能源原料的非常具有挑战性的物理和化学性质，从而为当地社区带来直接好处。需要克服的障碍包括物流、社会融合、技术和经济挑战以及体制支持。有了这样一套多学科的障碍，一个类似的多学科团队已经被召集起来，试图解决这些问题。来自SuperGen生物能源中心的麦秆生理学和生物能源技术专家与IRRI的稻草专家、工程师、社会科学家和推广人员组成了核心研究团队。该小组将在5个工作方案上共同努力，有效地在伙伴之间转移知识，以解决利用废弃稻草能源可持续发展的障碍。这些措施包括：1.了解稻草以及将其用于能源用途的具体挑战(技术、经济和社会)2a。评估利用稻草提供能源的不同技术选择的技术和经济绩效--在菲律宾利用不同的转换技术(如气化、燃烧和厌氧消化)对稻草进行转换试验，以预测基于这些不同转换选择的整个系统将如何在一系列技术和经济标准的不同规模下运行，例如安装的资本成本、投资回收期、供热盈亏平衡价格等。利用利益攸关方的参与，查明与稻草能源转换有关的技术和非技术障碍，包括项目开发的可行商业模式等问题。量化最有希望的转换选择的环境影响，包括关键的温室气体惠益4。通过焦点小组讨论了解当地社区的能源需求和技术偏好，这不仅涉及农民(以原料为重点)，还涉及他们的家庭(作为烹饪需求、电力、食物储存等的最终用户)，以性别敏感的方式考虑整个社区的关切。碾米者、村长和政策制定者也将参与讨论，以获得更广泛的视角，为这项研究提供信息。通过与当地和国际利益攸关方的接触，促进稻草能源技术的发展，并通过在IRRI试验站将建造的设施中展示技术可行性来解决发展风险的关键问题。这是一个协调的活动计划，重点是更好地了解与稻草转化相关的特定问题，并解决这些问题，以显示哪些有效，哪些无效。这是解决整个亚洲稻草焚烧这一重大环境和健康问题的关键一步，同时也为当地社区带来了能源获取的好处。英国的合作伙伴通过使用一种异常具有挑战性的原料来扩大他们对工厂绩效的理解，这可能也会对其他原料产生影响，并通过加深对发展中国家社会政治背景的理解来受益。国际稻草研究所受益于更好地了解稻草转化带来的科学和工程挑战以及如何克服这些挑战。当地社区受益于环境危害的减少和清洁能源的获得。更广泛的全球人口受益于大米生产和能源使用造成的温室气体排放减少。

This project will take rice straw, which is currently a waste material creating environmental problems in intensive rice systems across South and South-East Asia, and demonstrate the feasibility of converting it to a useful energy resource. The research will focus on addressing the very challenging physical and chemical properties of rice straw as an energy feedstock in a way that yields direct benefits for local communities. Barriers to be overcome include logistics, social integration, technological and economical challenges and institutional support. With such a multi-disciplinary suite of obstacles, a similarly multi-disciplinary team has been assembled to try to negotiate them. Wheat straw physiology and bioenergy technology experts from the SUPERGEN bioenergy hub have teamed up with rice straw experts, engineers, social scientists and extension staff from IRRI to form the core research team. This team will work together in partnership on 5 work packages that will effectively transfer knowledge between the partners to address the obstacles to sustainable development of energy from waste rice straw. These include:1. Understanding the rice straw and the specific challenges (technical, economic and social) associated with using it for energy purposes2a. Evaluating the technical and economic performance of different technology options for delivering energy from rice straw - carrying out conversion trials of rice straw in the Philippines using different conversion technologies (e.g. gasification, combustion and anaerobic digestion) to develop projections of how a whole system based on these different conversion options would perform at different scales across a range of technical and economic criteria e.g. capital cost installed, payback time, break even price of heat generated etc.2b. Using stakeholder engagement to identify the technical and non-technical barriers associated with energy conversion of rice straw, including issues such as viable business models for project development3. Quantifying the environmental impact of the most promising conversion options, including crucially the greenhouse gas benefits4. Understanding the energy needs and technology preferences of local communities via focus group discussions, that involve not just farmers (with a feedstock focus) but also their households (as end users with cooking needs, electricity, food storage etc) to account for whole community concerns in a gender-sensitive way. Rice millers, village leaders and policy makers will also be involved in discussions to gain a wider range of perspectives that will inform the study.5. Enabling development of the rice straw-energy technologies by engagement with a variety of local and international stakeholders and addressing the key issue of development risk by demonstrating technology viability at a facility to be built at IRRI's Experimental Station.This represents a co-ordinated programme of activities focused on better understanding the particular issues associated with rice straw conversion and addressing these to show what works and what does not. This is a critical step in solving the major environmental and health issue of rice straw burning across Asia, whilst bringing energy access benefits for local communities. The UK partners gain from stretching their understanding of plant performance with an unusually challenging feedstock, which may also have implications for other feedstocks, and by deepening understanding of the socio-political context in developing countries. IRRI benefits from improved understanding of the scientific and engineering challenges posed by conversion of rice straw and how to overcome them. Local communities benefit from reduced environmental hazard and clean energy access. The wider global population benefits from reduced greenhouse gas emissions from rice production and energy use.