By-products

The main by-products of rice are rice straw, rice husk or hull, and rice bran.

diagram-by-products

  • Rice strawis produced when harvesting paddy. Straw comes from what is left on the plant after it is harvested and the grains are threshed.
  • Rice husks or hullsare generated during the first stage of rice milling, when rough rice or paddy rice is husked.
  • Rice bran is produced during the second stage in milling, the whitening or polishing process, when the bran layer is removed from the brown rice kernel.

Rice straw

What is rice straw?

Rice straw is a rice by-product produced when harvesting paddy. Each kg of milled rice produced results in roughly 0.71.4 kg of rice straw depending on varieties, cutting-height of the stubbles, and moisture content during harvest. Rice straw is separated from the grains after the plants are threshed either manually, using stationary threshers or, more recently, by using combine harvesters (Figure 1).

combine-harvester-with-rice-straw

Figure 1. Harvesting grain and straw using the combine harvester.

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Rice straw

Rice straw

Rice straw is a rice by-product produced when the harvested paddy is separated from the grains after the plants are threshed either manually, using stationary threshers or, more recently, by using combine harvesters.

Rice husk

Rice husk

The rice husk, also called rice hull, is the coating on a seed or grain of rice. It is formed from hard materials, including silica and lignin, to protect the seed during the growing season.

Rice bran

Rice bran

Rice bran is generated when brown rice moves through the whiteners and polishers. When paddy is hand-pounded or milled in a one-pass Engleberg steel huller, rice bran is not produced separately but mixed with rice hulls.