Life Cycle Inventory Analysis of Rice Produced by Local Processes

Abstract

Rice processing is one of the most important agro-industry. It consumes a considerable amount of energy and is responsible for environmental pollution. Life cycle inventory analysis has been performed on rice (parboiled and fresh) produced by different production processes (vessel, small-boiler, medium-boiler and untreated) to find an environmentally-friendly rice production process. The inventory results (energy consumption, atmospheric emission and solid waste) gradually decreased from the small-boiler to the untreated process (small-boiler>vessel>medium-boiler>untreated) and there is no waterborne emission in the case of the untreated process. The untreated process was found to be more environmentally-friendly compared to the others, however due to the lowest head rice yield (whole kernels after milling), it consumes greater resources (paddy). Among the parboiling processes the medium-boiler was found to be better, which has a lower energy inventory, atmospheric emission and solid waste compared to the others. This study also reveals that fuel switching only for cooking (biomass to electricity; electricity was assumed to be generated from biomass by IGCC technology) conserved primary energy (biomass) and reduced atmospheric emission (CO₂, CO, CH₄, TSP, NO_x, and SO_x) significantly.