RICE HUSK ANALYSIS

Nowadays, nanoscience is becoming one of the most promising technologies for

multidisciplinary studies. In particular, nanoparticles are among the most potent materials and
are widely used in different fields, such as catalysis, drug delivery, ceramics manufacturing,
chromatography, anticorrosion treatment, etc. In addition, biomass is a renewable energy
resource obtained from plantation, agricultural, forestry, and animal waste . Notably, it was
discovered in 1938 that rice husk (RH) contains silica (table 1). In particular, RH contains
cellulose and hemicellulose in various proportions (56%–75%), and 13.6%–34.8% of lignin . All
the rice in the world is grown over 140 million ha of land throughout Asia [ 5]. Generally, waste
materials, such as RH, peanut shells, bamboo leaves, and sugarcane bagasse, are burned after
harvest, and hence we lose a large number of nutrients contained in these waste materials. In
particular, these waste materials are enriched with silica and carbon (table 2). The utilization of
biomass has proven to be a viable alternative to fossil fuels.
Advanced biofuels and bioproducts generated from lignocellulosic biomass hold the potential for
significant depletion in greenhouse gas emissions and enhanced domestic energy generation in
nations with sufficient renewable sources and/or areas appropriate for energy crop cultivation. In
light of the present situation, this study outlines some of the most recent breakthroughs in
lignocellulosic pretreatment and transformation into solid, liquid, and gaseous biofuels.
Meanwhile, RH impacts the environment negatively if it is left on the farmland. On the other
hand, burning RH into the air converts elements like carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen from the RH
into combustible gases, such as methane, monoxides, hydrogen, and ash . Moreover, the
increased rice field size causes several environmental issues (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions, soil
depletion, pesticide usage), one of the most serious of which is dealing with post-harvest rice
straw treatment . Over the past few decades, scientists have discovered various methods for
limiting As absorption in rice grains.
These methods include the use of chemical immobilizing agents, electrokinetics,
phytoextraction, and soil cleansing, etc . Therefore, in situ immobilization is now widely used
because of its efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility. Rice straw may be harvested from
the field, heaped or distributed, integrated into the soil, or employed as mulch for the indicate.
For instance, rice straw can be used as a natural fertilizer in fields . Yang et al also revealed that
rice straw as well as other crop waste can be utilized as additional feedstock for ecological clean-
up and soil cleansing .
Table 1. The composition of RH ash. Content, % wt.
SiO Al2O Fe2O Ca Mg K2 Na2 P2O
2 3 3 O O O O 5
93.4 0.05 0.06 0.31 0.35 1.4 0.1 0.8

Table 2. A comparison table of the amount of silica in various raw materials.

Serial Raw Production route Biosilica yield References
no material (%)
1 Rice hull Alkaline 60% Kalapathy U, Proctor A and Shultz J 2002 An improved
ash precipitation method for production of silica from rice hull ash
Bioresour. Technol. 85 285–9
2 Bagasse Alkali extraction 80% and 73% Chindaprasirt P and Rattanasak U 2020 Eco-production
fly and acid of silica from sugarcane bagasse ash for use as a
precipitation photochromic pigment filler Sci. Rep. 10 1–8
3 Chrysotile Acid leaching Above 90% Wang L, Lu A, Wang C, Zheng X, Zhao D and Liu R
2006 Nano-fibriform production of silica from natural
chrysotile J. Colloid Interface Sci. 295 436–9
4 Sand Thermal 99.7%–99.9% Khalifa M, Ouertani R, Hajji M and Ezzaouia H 2019
treatment and Innovative technology for the production of high-purity
acid leaching sand silica by thermal treatment and acid leaching
process Hydrometallurgy 185 204–9
5 Banana Sol–gel method 0.36% Mohamad D F, Osman N S, Nazri M K H M, Mazlan A
peel ash A, Hanafi M F, Esa Y A M and Sapawe N 2019
Synthesis of mesoporous silica nanoparticle from banana
peel ash for removal of phenol and methyl orange in
aqueous solution Mater. Today 19 1119–25
6 Bamboo Sulfuric acid 52% Vaibhav V, Vijayalakshmi U and Roopan S M 2015
leaves treatment Agricultural waste as a source for the production of silica
nanoparticles Spectrochim. Acta A 139 515–20
7 Coconut Chemical 90% Anuar M F, Fen Y W, Zaid M H M, Matori K A and
husk treatment Khaidir R E M 2018 Synthesis and structural properties
of coconut husk as potential silica source Res. Phys. 11
1–4
8 Corncob Sol–gel method 27% Sapawe N, Osman N S, Zakaria M Z, Fikry S A S S M
and Aris M A M 2018 Synthesis of green silica from
agricultural waste by sol-gel method Mater. Today 5
21861–6
 RH is the most beneficial agricultural waste in the world since it includes a lot of organic
substances, such as cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin, and generates a significant amount of
RH ash [19]. So, thermochemical processing of RH utilizes the highly organic compounds of RH
to generate adsorbents (biochar and activated carbon) for environmental protection through
pollutant removal, building materials (natural fibers), and biofuels . In addition, RH ash has been
identified as a suitable raw material for the production of biosilica because RH ash contains trace
levels of alkali metals (e.g. Na and K), alkaline metals (e.g. Ca and Mg), transition metals (e.g.
Al, Fe, Cu, and Zn), and non-metals (e.g. Cl, S, and P) . Notably, biosilica is a precursor for the
development of silica derivatives, used as pollutant removal adsorbents, epoxy resin additives,
composite material constituents, refractory ceramics, concrete material constituents, and catalysts

As a result, most researchers have started to focus their efforts on developing environmentally
acceptable pretreatment processes for RH used before biosilica production from the RH. As
stated before, the rice plant absorbs silica from the soil and stores the absorbed silica inside the
cellulose micro-compartments of the plant in the form of silicic acid . Moreover, RH may be a
natural reservoir and a suitable precursor of amorphous nano-biosilica because the silica in RH is
present naturally in the form of nanoparticles. Many studies have followed various biosilica
production methods, including calcination , the sol–gel method , and chemical precipitation .
Notably, the sol–gel method of producing biosilica takes a long time but produces exceptionallly
pure and homogeneous nano-biosilica . Operationally, the sol–gel method of biosilica production
involves the condensing of the originated silica molecule of the production and low-temperature
hydrolysis .
Meanwhile, sodium silicate is treated with an inorganic acid during the precipitation of sodium
silicate in the chemical precipitation method of silica production to produce precipitated nano-
biosilica. In particular, the sol–gel method of biosilica production is simple, easy, and quick.
However, this biosilica production method has the disadvantage that the biosilica nanoparticles
produced in this method can be easily altered by different causes . On the other hand, the
calcination method of biosilica production produces nano-biosilica from RH in a more
commercial and straightforward manner. Notably, the goal of this study is to identify the most
effective technique and examine the optimal circumstances for synthesizing highly pure biosilica
from RH through acid leaching and chemical extraction, which is a potential catalyst for the
manufacturing of biofuels.