ADAPTIVE TESTING AND PRE-COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE PHILRICE

CONTINUOUS-TYPE RICE HULL (CTRH) CARBONIZER

RATIONALE

The PhilRice CTRH carbonizer was designed and developed to complement with the existing
technology on rice hull carbonization (open-type carbonizer), and address some of its limitations such
as limited capacity and smoky emission. This newly developed carbonizer has a clean emission
(practically smokeless) and could process rice hull into CRH at a relatively faster rate than the
existing technology. However, to ensure its marketability, there is a need to evaluate its performance
under actual working conditions by operating it under the management of a potential user for a
relatively long period of time (at least 6 months). Under these conditions, some problems and weak
points of the machine could emerge and necessary design refinements could be done prior to its
commercialization.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the performance of the CTRH carbonizer under actual operating conditions
(users’ level) and make initial commercialization of the technology.

METHODOLOGY

Selection of cooperator

A cooperator (could be a cooperative or individual farmer with existing similar operations)

shall be identified and shall be provided with a unit of the carbonizer to be used in the production of
CRH. The selection of the cooperator shall be based on the following criteria:

a. With existing CRH production or related activities.

b. Interested to use the prototype and planning to buy a commercial unit after the conduct
of the study.
c. Has potential or plan to put up or expand a CRH production and marketing business.

Monitoring machine performance

During the period of continued use by the cooperator, the performance of the prototype
CTRH carbonizer, shall be monitored and compared with the previous practice of CRH production.
Likewise, parts that fail or show signs of failure shall be identified as inputs to design refinements that
shall be done prior to full blown commercialization of the machine.

Data to be gathered

a. Total amount of CRH produced (whole duration of testing)

b. Total accumulated operating hours (whole duration of testing)
c. Machine capacity- amount of rice hull carbonized per unit time
d. CRH yield – amount of CRH recovered per unit amount of rice hull carbonized (in
percent)
e. Machine design/operational problems encountered
f. User’s feedback
g. Economic analysis
 RECORD OF RH CARBONIZER PERFORMANCE

Carbonizer Used*: ______________________________________________

INPUT OUTPUT TIME OF OPERATION

DATE
(rice hull)** (charcoal)** Start Finish
* Specify whether the old (batch-type) or the new (continuous-type) carbonizer is used
** Specify unit of measurement used