Sustainable energy solution for cogeneration plant in a modern rice mill using paddy husk

摘要

As various technological and operational constraints exist in electricity distribution, many rural areas in India are deprived of power from the national electrical grid. In this situation sustainable energy solutions are the most viable and accessible sources for power production. Among the available sustainable resources, Paddy husk is popular and has become a better and cheaper alternative for conventional fuels. In India alone nearly 33,000 modern rice mills have been established to process the paddy into parboiled rice. More than 40 million tones of husk is available per year from these mills. This shows the huge energy potential of the paddy husk. All existing modern rice mills are using boilers to generate steam for the parboiling process. This paper describes the thermal design concepts of a cogeneration plant using husk as a fuel to generate the steam and electric power from the steam after using it in the parboiling process.