Overview of combustion and gasification of rice husk in fluidized bed reactors

Rice is cultivated in more than 75 countries in the world. The rice husk is the outer cover of the rice and on average it accounts for 20% of the paddy produced, on weight basis. The worldwide annual husk output is about 80 million tonnes with an annual energy potential of 1.2 × 10⁹ GJ corresponding to a heating value of 15 MJ/kg. India alone generates about 22 million tonnes of rice husk per year. If an efficient method is available, the husk can be converted to a useful form of energy to meet the thermal and mechanical energy requirements of the rice mills themselves. This paper provides an overview of previous works on combustion and gasification of rice husk in atmospheric bubbling fluidized bed reactors and summarizes the state of the art knowledge. As the high ash content, low bulk density, poor flow characteristics and low ash melting point makes the other types of reactors like grate furnaces and downdraft gasifiers either inefficient or unsuitable for rice husk conversion to energy, the fluidized bed reactor seems to be the promising choice. The overview shows that the reported results are from only small bench or lab scale units. Although a combustion efficiency of about 80% can normally be attained; the reported values in the literature, which are more than 95%, seem to be in higher order. Combustion intensity of about 530 kg/h/m² is reported. It is also technically feasible to gasify rice husk in a fluidized bed reactor to yield combustible producer gas, even with sufficient heating value for application in internal combustion engines. A combustible gas with heating value of 4-6 MJ/Nm³ at a rate of 2.8-4.6 MW_th/m² seems to be possible. Only very little information is available on the pollutant emissions in combustion and tar emissions from gasification. The major conclusion is that the results reported in the literature are limited and vary widely, emphasizing the need for further research to establish suitable and optimum operating conditions for commercial implementations.