Wed, 2012-12-12 01:17 — editor
Sri Lanka’s rice industry, which has earned an
international reputation as one of the few producers of some best red rice
varieties in the world, is set get a fresh boost when a top Japanese biz house
moves in to utilize ‘rice husks’ for clean energy production in large scale.
Rice Husk Briquettes, the low cost clean, bio-mass
energy source used internationally, is now set to enter Sri Lanka’s industrial
landscape, and even domestic use when MTI Japan begins its project in Sri
Lanka.
“Husk bricks are an internationally used energy source
well known for their environment friendliness and low cost, often almost freely
sourced. For example, their costs savings are more than 20% in comparison to
coal, and three-to four times energy output as firewood” revealed Teppei
Tanigawa, the President/CEO of Hyogo, Kobe based MTI Japan Co Ltd on 23
November.
Tanigawa was addressing Rishad Bathiudeen (Minister of
Industry and Commerce of Sri Lanka) on 23 November at the Ministry of Industry
and Commerce, Colombo when he called upon Minister Bathiudeen with his high
level three-member team from Tanigawa’s Kobe city (Hyogo sector) based MTI
Japan Co Ltd is a business house involved in diverse ventures including trading,
manufacturing and advanced technology in Japan and abroad. Specially, MTI’s
cutting-edge technology is known for state-of-the-art advanced sensing &
sensor tech, autonomous support systems, artificial intelligence (AI), and even
robot control technology, among others. Interestingly, MTI has a strong
interest on ‘technology for SMEs’ and also ‘clean energy.’
“Just 2 kilos of husk bricks can give energy
equivalent of one litre of kerosene when used domestically. Rice husk bricks
are widely used in Japan for house heating specially in winter. As a result, we
know how efficient it is for industry usage. We are studying many ways of
producing the bricks in Sri Lanka, including a mobile production unit which can
assist to give tech transfer to Sri Lanka’s rice industry” Tanigawa stressed
and added: “In other words, you don’t need to bring the paddy husks to us, but
we can come to the rural doorstep and on our way back from the farmers home, we
can create bricks and the completed bricks are ready to be fed to the burner
promptly. We are also planning to set up more than 100 husk grinding mills
across the country in proximity to paddy areas. The good news is that we have
already introduced this novel mobile compressing technology to Kenya with good
results. From Kenya, we are planning to expand to the rest of the huge African
market where not only rice husks, but even peanut husks could be used in large
quantities.”
“We welcome and thank MTI Japan for choosing Sri Lanka
for its next international venture” said Rishad Bathiudeen, Minister of
Industry and Commerce of Sri Lanka, addressing CEO Tanigawa. “Biomass energy
from such a low cost source is a welcome boost for our industrial sector
productivity since it will support our energy efficiency initiatives. I have
been given to understand that MTI Japan, in addition to be in technology, also
is strong in SME sectors, which is the backbone of Sri Lanka’s economy. As a
result, I see strong synergies between MTI Corp and us” Minister Bathiudeen
stressed.
- Asian Tribune -
