My upbringing at village level specially during my school holidays still has lasting impact on my Agro Business ventures. Professional qualifications at graduate level did make me ponder on various important factors of balancing the income of the farmers and processors. My accidental tenure with Basmati milling made me fall in love with the Rice Milling. I did accept lot of challenges the Basmati fraternity and was blessed to conquer most of them.
I would like to express my technical instinct which is worth considering and make best of it. The “Energy Balance” meaning the milling operations can be managed within the available calorific values equivalent power generation capability. Millers would certainly boost its margins if surviving within this limit. If at all if the husk is not sufficient for the requisite power generation, the paddy straw power generation can also be considered by adapting dual furnace.
Considering this proposition, it is a win-win situation for farmers, processor and positive impact on environment.
Just hold a meeting with your Rice Mill equipment supplier and audit the possibilities of optimizing the power consumption. Discuss the power generation from higher pressure boiler with back pressure steam.
A case study:
Paddy Straw to Paddy Ratio: 1.4 to 1
125000 MT ton paddy 14 MW power generation which is 9 Kw per ton.
About 3636 tons of husk production can generate 1.5 MW power.
Activated Carbon, Amorphous silica, crystalline silica are by products.
500 TDP rice mill need to be generating its own power.