UNUSUAL stoves that make use of ricehull as fuel have been designed by someentrepreneurs in the Philippines. Withrising costs of fossil fuels and firewooddisappearing from forests, rice-hullstoves are increasingly becoming popular in the service industries as well as in rural households in the Philippines(Sustainable Energy News, No 16).
The country generates around twoto three million tonnes of rice hullannually. Of this, only five per cent wasbeing used as fuel and fodder. The restwas either dumped or burned resultingin environmental degradation. Of late,however, rice hull has found use inagriculture and as an alternative forfirewood and kerosene. According to asurvey done by the Rural EnterpriseDevelopment Foundation Inc, a localNGO, on an average, a family of six uses3.4 tonnes of rice hull per year and saves10 to 15 per cent in fuel costs. Rice-hull fuel consumption In service industries like restaurants and food processing plantsranged from 16 to 65 tonnes per year.
Rice-hull stoves areavailable in two models:fixed and movable. Bothhave a funnel which is usedas a storage and passagewayfor loading rice hull. Themovable type is a four-legged table stove with twopotholes. It is designed for household use. The fixedtype models are heavy-duty stoves used in restaurants and food processing plants. The three to four potholes model used in restaurants can store as much as 300 kg of rice hull at a time. The Philippines -based International Rice Research Institute has developed a single-pothole version which is usually preferred by food processing plants.