The greenhouse gas performance and climate change mitigation potential from rice straw biogas as a pathway to the UN sustainable development goals
Rice production and unsustainable rice straw disposal are key contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The Philippines is one of the main rice-producing countries globally and rice production is a key economic activity for about 2 million farm households.
Integrating biogas into rice supply chains can significantly contribute to decarbonising the agricultural and energy sectors, making rice production more sustainable. This research demonstrates that integrating biogas production from rice straw can help reduce GHG emissions of paddy rice production systems in the Philippines.
The research was part of the Innovate UK-funded Energy Catalyst Round 4 project “Rice Straw to Biogas” to set up, test and assess a biogas facility for anaerobic digestion of rice straw.
Key messages from the paper (subject to the scope of the study):
- Biogas from rice straw reduces emissions by up to 69 %.
- Soil incorporation of straw has the highest short-term (20 years) temperature increase.
- Governance frameworks enabling bioenergy integration support SDG 3, 7 and 13.
