A Direct Comparison of Processing Methods of High Purity Rice Husk Silica

It is an established fact that rice husk is rich in amorphous silica which when extracted in sufficiently pure form, could be used in several industrial applications and in the manufacture of value added products. Many of the processes employed for the purification of rice husk silica involve the use of strong acid and bases, requiring complex unit operations and extended times, apart from their unfriendliness to environment and personnel. The hydro thermobaric process was developed as a viable alternative to these rice husk silica purification processes. This study reported a performance comparison in terms of product purity, yield, structure and processing time between the newly developed hydro thermobaric and other previously used processes. The new process surpasses others in terms of processing time and yield while being at par with them in terms of product quality and structure.