MIT Clean Energy Prize 2009 goes to Rice Husk Insulation

This year MIT Clean Energy Prize of $200,000 went to a startup which created insulation for refrigerators using Rice Husk Ash. A total of 25 semi-finalists competed for the prize from the five categories of Biomass, Clean Hydrocarbons, Energy Efficiency and Infrastructure , Renewables and Transportation.

While each category has an award of it’s own, the grand prize went to Husk, a startup backed by University of Michigan which competed in the Biomass category. This award is funded together by NSTAR and U.S Department of Energy.

Rice husk (hull), the hard protecting layer of rice grains, is an agricultural by-product generated by milling of paddy. It is used as fuel in the mills to generate steam for the parboiling process . About 25 % of it’s weight is converted into ash during the firing process and is known as rice husk ash ( RHA ).

RHA is high in silica and hence a very good insulator. Husk has invented the process to manufacture the core material for insulating panels of regrigerators from RHA. An energy efficiency of 50% could be achieved by this RHA based vacuum sealed insulation.

Also, a 1 inch thich rice husk panel gives the same amount of insulation as a 4-inch-thick polystyrene panel thus leading to as much as 20% increase in interior space. This innovation gives the double benefit of increasing the utilization of rice husk ash which is otherwise dumped into the environment and also reducing the use of polysterene which is a non biodegradable petroleum product.