Rice straw to Biogas (R2B) Project

Rice is the world's number one food crop, but its stems and leaves (straw) are a major waste product in developing countries, especially in Asia where around 300 million tonnes of it are burned each year for disposal, damaging the environment and human health. It is generally a poor quality feed for livestock and is not suitable for incorporating back into flooded rice fields, which would result in emissions of methane - a powerful greenhouse gas. Prior research has shown that it can be made into a clean-burning cooking fuel (biogas) using anaerobic digestion, but there are many technical and non-technical barriers to be overcome, such as getting the straw from the field to a hub economically and overcoming challenges in processing it into fuel. This project brings together two innovative businesses and leading academics in their field to set up a field trial in the Philippines, backed up by significant lab work and analysis in the UK. The aim is to develop a practical solution that could profitably serve remote communities of rice farmers, who are among the 3 billion people worldwide who lack clean cooking fuel but are surrounded by this vast, underused bioenergy resource.