Use of rice crops waste for energy production in Ecuador

The purpose of this paper is to assess the feasibility of energy production from rice husk in the Province of Los Ríos, located in Ecuador. The overall aim is to determine the most convenient energy generation technological path, considering the amount of resource available, between direct biomass burning for heat production and electricity (on-grid) production through steam turbine usage, pyrolysis gasification and plasma gasification, together with silica gel recovery from the rice husk ash. The decision is made based on the technology state of the different options, the energy production rate and the financial analysis which has a scope of ±30%. This purpose requires developing a basic process design with output streams forecast, cost estimation and financial analysis for each one of the options analyzed. A survey identifies three zones in the study area where rice resource is concentrated with the potential to develop and install suitable power plants. The pyrolysis gasification technology presents the most promising solution and a scenario including silica gel recovery increases the profitability of potential projects in all cases.