Building Material from Upcycled Rice Hulls Delivers a New Eco-Friendly Construction Product Alternative

Globally, one of the most widely cultivated crops is rice, “leading to millions of tons of rice husks (also known as rice hulls or chaffs). Increased public awareness regarding sustainable development and the rising utilization of renewable resources has fueled an extensive search for utilization of the large volume of biowaste from rice hulls, such as the production of electricity. However, the high silica (also known as silicon dioxide, or SiO2) content in rice husks results in the production of “large amounts of undesirable ash upon combustion leading to operation problems such as slagging and clogging,” but studies for the extraction of silica via pretreatment are underway. More recently Modern Mill, a New Jersey-based real estate developer and manufacturer of sustainable building materials has been able to “upcycle rice hulls in a zero-waste manufacturing facility” to create an Advanced Composite with Recycled Elements (ACRE) that provides the workability of wood without cutting down any trees. ACRE “emits zero volatile organic compounds, phenol, formaldehyde, or forever chemical, but offers a construction product that is water-, weather-, and pest-resistant, has a genuine wood aesthetic, can be stained or painted without primer, and won’t rot or splinter according to the company’s website. Sustainability efforts such as Modern Mill’s ACRE product provide a good step forward towards making the construction industry more eco-friendly, reported data compiled by the United Nations Environment Programme indicated that the “building and construction sector accounted for about 37% of annual global  pollution in 2023;” and according to the World Economic Forum, efforts to decarbonize this sector can lead to $1.8 trillion in global market opportunities.

Source:    https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/acre-building-material-rice-hulls-sustainable/