Rice husk gasification for electricity generation in Cambodia in December 2014: Field trip report

Rice husks are the indigestible coatings of grains of rice. They are produced in large quantities by the rice milling industry, more than 1 million ton per year in Cambodia. In recent years, Cambodian enterprises have installed gasifiers, which burn rice husks to generate electricity. This is a two stage process: the biomass is first fed into a gasifier which produces syngas and ashes, then the syngas is cleaned and burned into an engine where it saves diesel fuel. Many of these enterprises have been in local communities currently without electricity or in fuel poverty.To learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of using rice-husk gasifiers, and to study about the sustainability challenges for deploying these technologies, the Clean energy and sustainable development lab (CleanED lab) of the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH), and the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) have conducted a visit of several rice mills and rural electricity enterprises from 18 th to 22nd December 2014.Five rice mills and a rural electricity enterprise in Battambang, Siem Reap and Kampong Thom provinces were selected for the field survey. In addition with desk research, semi-structured interviews with gasifier users, with the representatives of Canadia Bank PLC and the Federation of Cambodian Rice Millers Association (FCRMA) during the field surveys were also conducted. This report present and justifies the main conclusions of the visit

A critical look at rice husk gasification in Cambodia: Technology and sustainability

International audienceIn recent years, many Cambodian enterprises have installed rice husk gasifiers to substitute diesel in the electricity production to run rice mills machinery, or to provide electricity for villages. This study provides a critical look at rice husk gasification by assessing the sustainability of deploying this technology in Cambodia, expressed through environmental, economic and social impacts, and evaluates if it can be applied in Vietnam. Results show that gasification technology works in Cambodia and contribute to the development of the rice-milling sector, however environmental issues are severe and should be treated. We observe that increase in rice husk demand also leads to increase in price of rice husk, therefore new investors should consider the effect of new rice husk market for their activities. We conclude that this technology would not be suitable for Vietnam and suggests studying other alternative technologies to convert rice husk into energy, such as steam engine or steam turbine, gasifier stove, briquetting or co-firing

A critical look on rice husk gasification in Cambodia: engineering and sustainability

PACITA Conference at Berlin, GermanyInternational audienceRice husks are the indigestible coatings of grains of rice. They are produced in large quantities by the rice milling industry, more than 1 million ton per year in Cambodia. In recent years, Cambodian enterprises have installed gasifiers, which burn rice husks to generate electricity. This is a two stage process: the biomass is first fed into a gasifier which produces syngas and ashes, then the syngas is cleaned and burned into an engine where it saves diesel fuel. Our study describes the sustainability challenges for deploying these technologies: how much does it depends on government intervention and on the state of the electricity market? What are the impacts of the gaseous, liquid and solid wastes? What are benefits for the local companies in term of profits, jobs and technology transfer

Using a system dynamics framework to assess disease risks of pig value chains in Vietnam

In Vietnam, there are more than 4 million households producing pigs and pork. This accounts for 57% of quantity of meat consumed. One of the most critical constraints to pig production is the presence of animal disease. Pig disease outbreaks are a regular occurrence in various parts of the country, with the industry affected by diseases such as foot and mouth disease, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, classical swine fever, porcine high fever disease, and swine influenza. In addition, food safety issues related to pig diseases and pork-borne diseases have also increasingly become more important concerns for consumers. Recent studies have shown significant changes in consumption behaviour in response to disease outbreaks. For instance, at least half of urban consumers stop consuming pork in times of pig disease epidemics and/or shift consumption to other meat substitutes such as poultry or fish. Disease risks thus have both public health and livelihoods impacts that are important to understand for appropriate policy and practice response. A proposed methodology for investigating disease risks uses a system dynamics analysis framework. System dynamics models are particularly relevant in the study of livestock systems, as they capture the diverse actors and feedbacks present in value chains and their interface with disease risk and behaviour. A system dynamics model is developed that will describe different scenarios of disease risks and the consequences of different interventions to mitigate these risks. Data from a sample of 1000 farmers and value chain actors including all actors in the pig value chain in Vietnam was collected with support from an ACIAR-funded project on Reducing Disease Risks and Improving Food Safety in Smallholder Pig Value Chains in Vietnam. We propose to test the hypotheses that disease risk is affected by type of production system, feeding system and types of feed uses, access to inputs and services, and selected socio-demographic variables associated with farmers and location

Market-based approaches to food safety and animal health interventions: Lessons from smallholder pig value chains in Vietnam

Food safety and animal health issues are increasingly important constraints to smallholder pig production in Viet Nam. Recent studies have highlighted the significant prevalence of animal disease and food‐borne pathogens inherent within the Vietnamese pig sector. These in turn have important negative livelihoods effects on smallholder pig producers and other value chain actors, as well as important public health impacts. An important research gap is in identifying ex‐ante appropriate market‐based policy responses that take into account the tradeoffs between improved animal health and food safety outcomes and their associated costs for different value chain actors as a means of developing chain‐level solutions for their control. In this paper, we constructed a system dynamics model of the pig value chain that combines a detailed model of herd production and marketing with modules on short‐ and long‐term investment in pig capacity, and decisions by value chain actors to adopt different innovations. The model further highlights the feedbacks between different actors in the chain to identify both the potential entry points for upgrading food safety and animal health as well as potential areas of tension within the chain that may undermine uptake. Model results demonstrate that interventions at nodal levels (e.g. only at farm or slaughterhouse level) are less cost‐effective and sustainable than those that jointly enhance incentives for control across the value chain, as weak links downstream undermine the ability of producers to sustain good health practices

Targeting effect of folate on cancer cell through curcumin carrier nano-system

Folate receptor (FR) is well known for its overexpression on surface of various cancer cell lines, which is identical to normal tissue. Folic-based targeting drug delivery systems, therefore, are one of the most effective targeting carriers that effectively bind to FR up-regulated cancer cells. Curcumin was used both for labeling and chemotherapy. The materials were characterized and structurally confirmed by FT-IR spectra, fluorescent images and FE-SEM images. Bioassays were conducted on HeLa and HT29 cancer cell lines after 4 and 12 hours. Results show that folic acid significantly enhanced both targeting efficiency and internalization of curcumin to FR-expressing cancer cells

Socio-Cultural Factors Challenging Development Interventions in Cattle Production in the Remote Areas of Vietnam

The northwest highlands of Vietnam are characterized by high altitude, low infrastructure, and low population densities composed of a wide diversity of different ethnic groups. Their socio-cultural characteristics strongly influence their lifestyle and production systems, including agricultural activities. The majority of these people have suffered from slow economic development, with the highest poverty rate in the country. This is a real need for plausible interventions where behavioral changes of smallholders throughout local value chains would be a critical foundation. Our project implemented in this context of development in the Northwest highlands of Vietnam aims to understand the role of socio-cultural factors in cattle production systems in order to propose and examine feasible technical and marketing interventions to improve local grazing-based cattle production. Data on farmers and other actors (collectors, slaughterhouses, retailers and consumers) in local cattle value chains of two selected provinces (Son La and Dien Bien) were collected at the beginning of the project via a baseline survey. In addition, different group discussions with farmers were conducted until the end of the project to monitor the project’s progress and changes created through its interventions. We found that such behavioral changes cannot be motivated by development interventions per se without integrating an understanding of socio-cultural factors (i.e. ethnicity, geographical location and grazing-practices)