Towards an integrated, resource-efficient rice mill complex

• The concept of an integrated, resource-efficient (IRE) rice mill complex.
• The key processes of rice milling that include drying, milling, and utility system.
• The state-of-the-art on utilisation of by-products from rice mills.
• The mass and energy balances for both the conventional and the IRE rice mill complexes are tabulated and compared.
• The key challenges in planning and designing an IRE rice mill complex.

Increased competitiveness and the growing demands for rice have stimulated the transformation of a conventional rice mill into an integrated, resource-efficient (IRE) rice mill complex. The IRE rice mill complex utilises the by-products from a rice milling process that include the broken rice, rice bran and rice husk, to produce value-added products and energy resources. This paper reviews the current processes and technologies employed in a conventional rice mill. It also highlights the current baseline practices of rice milling that offers vast opportunities for optimising the rice mill's utility system and for value-adding the by-products. Towards these ends, the concept of an IRE rice mill complex has been introduced as a potential solution, along with the mass and energy balances of the key resources. Finally, the paper highlights the key challenges in designing an IRE rice mill complex for both private millers and large rice enterprises.

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