Philippine E-Journals

Low-Cost Rice Hull Carbonizer

Jonas Guinto

Discipline: Agriculture

 

Abstract:

Rice hull is composed of carbon. If burned in control conditions it will yield a solid carbonized matter mixed with silica, or known as carbonized rice hull that can be used as fuel. A device made from discarded cans was made using simple hand tools with minimal metal craft skills. From an existing design of open type rice hull carbonizer from Philippine Rice Research Institute, a control model was made. A total of eight carbonizers with different designs were developed and tested. Results showed that the type that performed the best in terms of percent yield and rate of carbonization was Type 8 whose carbonization rate was between the slowest and the fastest type. It had no noticeable unburned rice hull and ash formation which is a by-product that must be avoided by this carbonizer design. Gaseous emissions that indicate unburned combustible and volatile matter were also minimal compared to the other types. Designing and fabricating a carbonizer using simple, recycled materials with the use of hand tools that require minimal metal working skills can be done.