TY - JOUR
T1 - Technical, economic, and environmental feasibility of rice hull ash from electricity generation as a mineral additive to concrete
AU - Ro, Jin Wook
AU - Cunningham, Patrick R.
AU - Miller, Sabbie A.
AU - Kendall, Alissa
AU - Harvey, John
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/12
Y1 - 2024/12
N2 - A circular economy based on symbiotic relationships among sectors, where the waste from one is resource to another, holds promise for cost-effective and sustainable production. This research explores such a model for the agriculture, energy, and construction sectors in California. Here, we develop new an understanding for the synergistic utilization mechanisms for rice hull, a byproduct from rice production, as a feedstock for electricity generation and rice hull ash (RHA) used as a supplementary cementitious material in concrete. A suite of methods including experimental analysis, techno-economic analysis (TEA), and life-cycle assessment (LCA) were applied to estimate the cost and environmental performance of the system. TEA results showed that the electricity price required for break even on expenses without selling RHA is $0.07/kWh, lower than the market price. As such, RHA may be available at little to no cost to concrete producers. Our experimental results showed the viability of RHA to be used as a supplementary cementitious material, meaning it can replace a portion of the cement used in concrete. LCA results showed that replacing 15% of cement with RHA in concrete can reduce carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions by 15% while still meeting material performance targets. While the substitution rate of RHA for cement may be modest, RHA generated from California alone could mitigate 0.2% of total CO2e from the entire cement production sector in the United States and 1% in California.
AB - A circular economy based on symbiotic relationships among sectors, where the waste from one is resource to another, holds promise for cost-effective and sustainable production. This research explores such a model for the agriculture, energy, and construction sectors in California. Here, we develop new an understanding for the synergistic utilization mechanisms for rice hull, a byproduct from rice production, as a feedstock for electricity generation and rice hull ash (RHA) used as a supplementary cementitious material in concrete. A suite of methods including experimental analysis, techno-economic analysis (TEA), and life-cycle assessment (LCA) were applied to estimate the cost and environmental performance of the system. TEA results showed that the electricity price required for break even on expenses without selling RHA is $0.07/kWh, lower than the market price. As such, RHA may be available at little to no cost to concrete producers. Our experimental results showed the viability of RHA to be used as a supplementary cementitious material, meaning it can replace a portion of the cement used in concrete. LCA results showed that replacing 15% of cement with RHA in concrete can reduce carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions by 15% while still meeting material performance targets. While the substitution rate of RHA for cement may be modest, RHA generated from California alone could mitigate 0.2% of total CO2e from the entire cement production sector in the United States and 1% in California.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85190869103&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-024-59615-1
DO - 10.1038/s41598-024-59615-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 38644405
AN - SCOPUS:85190869103
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 14
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 9158
ER -