Rural Filipinos have cut their dependence on firewood by using cost-effective rice-hull stoves
UNUSUAL stoves that make use of rice
hull as fuel have been designed by some
entrepreneurs in the Philippines. With
rising costs of fossil fuels and firewood
disappearing from forests, rice-hull
stoves 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 two
to three million tonnes of rice hull
annually. Of this, only five per cent was
being used as fuel and fodder. The rest
was either dumped or burned resulting
in environmental degradation. Of late,
however, rice hull has found use in
agriculture and as an alternative for
firewood and kerosene. According to a
survey done by the Rural Enterprise
Development Foundation Inc, a local
NGO, on an average, a family of six uses
3.4 tonnes of rice hull per year and saves
10 to 15 per cent in fuel costs. Rice-hull fuel consumption
In service industries like restaurants and food processing plants
ranged from 16 to 65 tonnes per year.
Rice-hull stoves are
available in two models:
fixed and movable. Both
have a funnel which is used
as a storage and passageway
for loading rice hull. The
movable type
is a four-legged table stove with two
potholes. It is designed for household use. The fixed
type 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.
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