Title
Rice straw to Biogas (R2B) Project

CoPED ID
7ef94878-f4b1-4e65-86ea-f626b0643e71

Status
Closed


Value
£1,469,468

Start Date
March 1, 2017

End Date
Feb. 29, 2020

Description

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Rice is the world's number one food crop, but its stems and leaves (straw) are a major waste product in developing countries, especially in Asia where around 300 million tonnes of it are burned each year for disposal, damaging the environment and human health. It is generally a poor quality feed for livestock and is not suitable for incorporating back into flooded rice fields, which would result in emissions of methane - a powerful greenhouse gas. Prior research has shown that it can be made into a clean-burning cooking fuel (biogas) using anaerobic digestion, but there are many technical and non-technical barriers to be overcome, such as getting the straw from the field to a hub economically and overcoming challenges in processing it into fuel. This project brings together two innovative businesses and leading academics in their field to set up a field trial in the Philippines, backed up by significant lab work and analysis in the UK. The aim is to develop a practical solution that could profitably serve remote communities of rice farmers, who are among the 3 billion people worldwide who lack clean cooking fuel but are surrounded by this vast, underused bioenergy resource.

Straw Innovations Ltd LEAD_ORG
Aston University PARTICIPANT_ORG
Qube Renewables Limited PARTICIPANT_ORG
University of Southampton PARTICIPANT_ORG
Straw Innovations Ltd PARTICIPANT_ORG

Subjects by relevance
  1. Biogas
  2. Fuels
  3. Food production
  4. Emissions
  5. Rice
  6. Methane
  7. Environmental effects
  8. Food
  9. Enterprises
  10. Bioenergy
  11. Developing countries
  12. Wastes
  13. Greenhouse gases
  14. Product development

Extracted key phrases
  1. Rice straw
  2. Rice field
  3. Rice farmer
  4. Clean cooking fuel
  5. Field trial
  6. Major waste product
  7. Food crop
  8. Technical barrier
  9. Poor quality feed
  10. Rice
  11. Powerful greenhouse gas
  12. Significant lab work
  13. Project
  14. Biogas
  15. Remote community

Related Pages

UKRI project entry

UK Project Locations