Proximate analysis and calorific value estimation of rice straw by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy

AbstractExploitation of straw resources as renewable energy source has attracted increasing interest since the present global energy crisis. Determination of both the proximate analysis and the calorific value are required before the utilisation as a biomass energy source. A total of 172 rice straw samples were collected from 17 provinces of China, and the use of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy was investigated as an alternative rapid method for proximate analysis and calorific value estimation. Different pretreatments and regression methods were examined to obtain optimum calibrations. The constructed models showed satisfactory accuracy and it was concluded that near infrared reflectance spectroscopy can be used as a rapid predictive tool for rice straw analysis.