Sustainable energy supply for local rice parboiling in West Africa: The potential of rice husk

Parboiling energy is met by wood in most West African Countries. This paper present result of field studies on parboiling energy supply in seven rice producing communities in Northern Ghana and evaluates the potential of meeting the annual energy requirement with rice husk. The role of key stakeholders in the wood supply chain is examined. The potential of rice husk is broadly examined under different utilization scenarios using energy replacement value based on a modified heating value, greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potential and annual energy expenditure. Wood retailers are the main suppliers of parboiling energy, accounting for 65% of wood supply. Wood consumption ranges from 0.30 to 0.92kg wood/kg of paddy soaked and 0.35–1.16kg wood/kg of paddy for steamed. Rice husk use could effectively and efficiently replace wood achieving up to 67% wood savings, 62.94% GHG emission reduction and an annual parboiling energy expenditure reduction of 73%.

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