Potential and viability of rice husk based power generation in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Due to intense fuel dependency on energy production in the world, cost of energy is now heavily depends on the prices of fossil fuels. Most of the countries in the world are suffering due to this and Sri Lanka is no exception. It is in this context promotion of biomass, as a renewable source, is so vital to the country. Rice being the staple food of the country as well as the crop with highest land area under cultivation, rice husk (RH) generated in paddy processing was found to have a significant potential in power generation. This paper investigates the possibility of using rice husk as a viable source of power generation in Sri Lanka. It is clearly seen that there is a significant potential in the districts of Ampara, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Kurunegala for power generation using rice husk. It was found that 30% of excess RH can be exploited for power generation with an annual energy potential of 180 GWh. This potential can be exploited by (1) Commercial scale RH power plants, (2) Small scale power plants under net metering scheme and (3) Off grid RH power plants.