Assessment of rice husk energy use for green electricity generation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh produces more than 46 million tonne of paddy each year. About 70% of this paddy is processed in local rice mills to produce food grain rice. Husk is produced as waste biomass during the rice processing. Annual rice husk production is about 9.0 million tonnes in Bangladesh. The rice residue dominates in biomass sector of Bangladesh. Husk is primarily used for producing steam in rice mill for parboiling and drying processes of rice. After burning of husk for parboiling, the excess amount husk could be used as a biomass resource for electricity generation. The availability of rice husk in a rice processing zone is dependent on the amount of the paddy processed and the husk burning technology used for parboiling process. The husk also can be used as source of biomass energy for producing electricity. Before going to install such power plant a details study is needed to make an assessment of biomass resource for electricity generation. 200 number of rice mills were surveyed from four major rice processing zones viz. Pulhat (Dinajpur), Naogaon, Bogra, and Ishawrdi (Pabna) clusters to explore available husk and to estimate potential of electricity generation from rice husk. Total paddy processed in these clusters was 3.62 million tonne. Amount of surplus husk for selected rice processing zones is estimated to be 455356 tonne per year. The potential power capacity is estimated to be 41450 MW based on the estimated available rice husk considering the steam turbine technology used for electricity generation.