Sustainable Silica from Rice husk: Techniques, Properties, Industrial Applications and Life Cycle Assessment

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_7How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Rice Husk Silica; LCA; Sustainability

Abstract

Silica [SiO₂] is an essential industrial resource, supporting uses in ceramics, glass, construction, rubber, reinforcement, electronics, coatings and renewable energy technologies. Conventionally, silica is produced with methods like flame pyrolysis or wet precipitation that are highly energy-intensive, depend on non-renewable resources, generate greenhouse gas emissions, chemical by-products and cause mining-related impacts. One sustainable alternative for this is Rice husk which is an abundant Agro waste containing [85 – 97%] of amorphous silica. To check the sustainability of rice husks derived silica as an alternative to conventional silica, it is important to evaluate its environmental performance throughout its life span. One significant method for assessing environmental performance over the life span of materials is through incorporation of Life Cycle Assessment [LCA]. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to evaluate the environmental impacts associated with rice husk derived silica, focusing on factors such as raw material utilization, energy consumption and emissions. The Modelling of LCA for Rice Husk Derived silica was done in accordance with the ISO 14040 LCA Framework using SimaPro Software. The characterization results using the ReCiPe 2016 midpoint method showed that the production of 1 kg of precipitated silica has a contribution of around 4.25 kg CO₂ eq. The LCA results highlight that the production of silica from rice husk presents a great sustainable option to conventional silica, especially from circular economy and waste valorization viewpoints. With the combination of renewable energy sources, green chemistry technologies, and process intensification, environmental performance of rice husk-derived silica can be greatly enhanced to further solidify its position as a sustainable alternative in industries.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Veena Puranik
AU  - Richa Verma
AU  - Apoorv Sinha
AU  - Avadhoot Dixit
AU  - Suraj Shekhar
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/26
TI  - Sustainable Silica from Rice husk: Techniques, Properties, Industrial Applications and Life Cycle Assessment
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Infrastructure Development and Sustainability (ICIDS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 90
EP  - 107
SN  - 3005-155X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_7
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_7
ID  - Puranik2026
ER  -