Agriculture Business Week

Carbonized rice hull (CRH) can be an environment-friendly alternative to wood charcoal as a carrier component in making Rhizobium inoculant, according to a study conducted by Dr. Constancio Asis Jr. and Julie Elijay of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in the Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija.

The use of microbial inoculant such as Rhizobium inoculant in crop production is now being widely adopted by farmers all over the country as this has resulted in increased yield and added profit because the application of synthetic nitrogenous fertilizer is reduced by up to fifty percent.

“The atmosphere has 78 percent nitrogen but this is in inert form which is not readily available for plant use due to the triple bond connecting the two nitrogen molecules,” says Asis. At this point, he said that the use of Rhizobium inoculant can be beneficial because the bacterium Rhizobium releases nitrogenase, an enzyme that cuts the bond between nitrogen molecules, making it available to the plants. In other words, nitrogenase helps in fixing atmospheric nitrogen and converting it into ammonia, a form which is usable by plants.

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Posted on April 12th, 2010 under Rice. Tags: Carbonize Rice Hull, Charcoal, Nueva, Nueva Ecija, PhilRice, Rice. Comments: 1

Learn how to prepare your own uling!

Charcoal made out of the modified pit method can be used in making charcoal briquettes. Charcoal briquette is charcoal duct compactly massed by a binder of cassava flour, corn or sweet potato starch.

As fuel, charcoal briquettes have higher heating value than wood or plain charcoal. They are almost smokeless when burning and give off intense and steady heat. They can be used in blast furnaces to replace coal in the smelting of iron ore since it is compact and dense.

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Posted on June 6th, 2009 under Income Booster, SPOTlight. Tags: Briquette, Charcoal. Comments: 5

COMPARISON TO OTHER BIOENERGY SOURCE
Comparing the characteristics of BPW based -from the study of Dr. Malab’s team and the standard heating values of charcoal (CRH and wood waste) and briquette (common hardwood and gmelina), the following results were obtained:

BPW has higher heat value (4,997 kcal/kg) than CRH (3,000 kcal/kg) and wood charcoal (2,222 kcal/kg), and was found comparable to common hardwood briquette (5,162 kcal/kg) and gmelina briquette (4,636 kcal/kg).

In terms of ash content, BPW has 8%13%, CRH and wood charcoal both have 8%-10%, common hardwood briquette has 8.18%, and gmelina briquette has 7.32%. However, common hardwood and gmelina briquettes have higher density at 0.52 g/cc and 0.54 g/ cc, respectively than BPW which has 0.46 g/cc.

It was noted that BPW does not easily crumble. It also produces white to clear fumes and does not cause blackening of cookware’s bottom, according to Dr. Malab. He added that a kilo of BPW burns in 2.5 hours, which means that it can cook up to three regular meals.

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Posted on June 3rd, 2009 under Forest Trees, SPOTlight. Tags: Bamboo, Briquette, Charcoal, Kawayan. Comments: 8

The dependable old kawayan (bamboo) charcoal briquette is now made better and is making waves in Ilocos, thanks to the continuous development efforts of Dr Stanley Malab and his colleagues from the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in Batac, Ilocos Norte.

Dr. Malab, the main researcher on the development of kawayan charcoal briquettes, is the director of Ilocos Agriculture Resources Research and Development Consortium (ILARRDEC) and also the vice president for research, extension and agribusiness affairs of MMSU.

In a forum organized by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development recently, Dr. Malab introduced the BPW (Biomass Processing Wastes) briquette, which is a combination of bamboo wastes, carbonized rice hull (CRH), and chichacorn effluent.

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Posted on June 1st, 2009 under Forest Trees, SPOTlight. Tags: Bamboo, Briquette, Charcoal, Kawayan, Rice Hull. Comments: 17

The Industrial Technology Development Institute(ITDI) of the Department of Science and Technology has developed a reactor which produces cheaper activated carbon(AC) from dried coconut shells and surplus energy which can be converted into electricity.

Cora Magpantay, senior science research specialist of ITDI’s Fuels and Energy Division, said that in the new technology, carbonization and activation are done in a single reactor whereas in the conventional process, these are done separately and eats up more energy.

The reactor has a capacity of 15 kilos per hour while in the conventional process, only 12 kilos of AC are produced per hour. And since it follows a continuous process and uses the gas that it produced for activation, it also reduces the production cost. “The process that takes place in the reactor is self-sustaining since the gas produced is also used to produce steam that is needed in the activation phase.” she added.

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Posted on February 5th, 2009 under Going Green, Other Crops, Technology. Tags: Activated Carbon, Charcoal, Coconut, DOST. Comments: 4

This modified manual briquetting machine has been creating ripples in Cavite.

The researchers of the Forestry Products Research and Development institute, based at UP Los Banos, Laguna, fabricated a modified manual briquetting machine using steel plates, angle bars and round bars. It was patterned after an existing manual briquetting machine weighing 55 kilograms (kg) and produces 12 kg of briquettes per hour. Each briquette measures 5.0 cm high and 2.5 cm in diameter.

The modified unit makes briquettes each measuring 3.8 cm high and 3.8 cm in diameter with 1.25 cm cavity diameter. It produces 15 kg of charcoal briquettes/hr. The unit weighs 75 kg, making it sturdier than the old unit.

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Posted on November 12th, 2008 under Other Crops. Tags: Charcoal, Coconut. Comments: 14