The market
Rice is the second most important culture in the world after wheat. Global production in 2010 was just under 600 million tonnes cultivated out of 155 million hectares per 250 million rice farmers. Unlike wheat (export 20%) and soybeans (export 35%), barely 7%of rice production is marketed internationally. China and India are by far the largest producers, but all production is intended for local consumption. Thailand and Vietnam are the biggest exporters. The consumption of rice per capita varies from an absolute maximum in Myanmar reaching almost 200 kg per person per year, at a minimum in Europe of barely 3 kg and 7 kg for the United States. There are 120,000 varieties of rice representing the richest gene bank in all plant species. Unfortunately, most cultivated rice fields are limited to 4 hybrid varieties, mainly developed in China. The rice is first and foremost a basic food whose origins date back 6,000 years before J.-C .. in addition to rice as a basic food, its grains, its envelopes and its straw are transformed into oil, Wine, cakes, flowers for baby feeding, cleaning products for jewelry, soap, insecticide, cement additive, abrasives, fuel, mold control, thermal insulation, substrate for mushrooms, to name a few of a long list of derivatives. Rice is not very rich in protein, but has the right mixture of amino acids which, combined with nuts and soy sauce, offers a full range of nutrients. It is estimated at 140 million tonnes the annual volume of rice balls spilled or burned. And as the pressure to increase rice production increases, pod production also increases. Although the rice shells have been mentioned in case 54 As part of a plan aimed at solving the problem of packaging, the shells constitute an important renewable source of silicon oxide (SiO2) which can be converted into Silicon carbide (sic) using carbon surplus from the same biological source. The rice pods are made from opaline, lignine and silica. Lignine is an ideal fuel for the pods to be transformed by oxygen to 550 degrees into a high added value product providing its own energy source. The silicon carbide does not melt, has excellent thermal and electric conductivity properties, a very low thermal dilation coefficient and is chemically inert. Each tonne of paddy rice generates 50 kg of silicon carbide. Although silicon carbide has 250 different crystalline forms, industrial normalization has progressed thanks to the growing demand for the defense industry (the SIC is the raw material used in bulletproof shields), electronics (electronics (electronics (electronics (electronics (electronics (electronics (electronics (electronics (electronics ( The SIC is called upon to become a key component of printed circuits) and renewable energies (the SIC is used for the production of photovoltaic energy). The world's leading producer of silicon carbide is the Indian group Murugappa, whose turnover amounts to $ 3.4 billion, in competition with Wacker Chemie (Germany) and Washington Mills (Norway).
Innovation
Traditionally, silicon carbide, also called carborundundum, is made from cokes, clay or sand. This energy -consuming process is based on the extraction of the two raw materials. Faced with the increase in demand, production developed with an investment by the Murugappa group in the largest factory in the world with a production of 100,000 t per year. However, the main challenge remains the stability of price levels, which depend on the demand of only a few sectors. In addition, if and when the new generation of electronic devices will come into service, demand will depend more and more on mining, while the vast majority of rice balls continue to be poured and cremated without any chance of value Added. Remi ie, the princess of Okinawa, proposed to make jewelry in silicon carbide and consulted two rice experts. Indeed, if we master the formation of the crystal, and we eliminate impurities, then silicon carbide can be transformed into a form of colorless transparent stone. She remembers how pearls emerged from an expensive and exclusive product to become an industry of $ 3 billion in 2010. Pearl harvest was compared to the culture of gold. When the first SIC stones were given to him and Rémi made them make them in a tailor -made golden ring for the shape of the stone, it realized that the sic could not only become an industrial raw material largely Used, but also meet the demand for jewelry at competitive prices, a bit like the Japanese (and then the Chinese) revolutionized the availability of pearls in the world.
The first cash flow
Entry into the market continues to best a skimming strategy, target the market with low volume and high added value. Just as pearls were for the richest only, today a medium -sized pearl can be purchased for as little as $ 4 basically, while the top quality Tahiti variety reports $ 30 per unit. This is the occasion that arises: how to take a small nation or region, work on technology to produce unique sic stones. Rémi has decided that his field of testing will be Bhutan as part of a larger program aimed at ensuring rice farmers and agricultural communities better income, while offering a product higher than a competitive price. The first series is expected to be ready by July 2012 for a presentation in Bumthang.
The opportunity
Pearls, carefully cultivated calcium carbonate, is not only used as a jewel. The crushed pearls are medicinal due to their high alkalinity, used in cosmetics and paintings. The world has gone from an overexploitation of mussels and oysters to a stable and cheaper supply. The SIC stones would not emerge from an agricultural technique which was to overcome the overexploitation of nature and water pollution, but an abundance of resources with a final product derived from around 20 million tonnes of ash rice. If the SIC stones correspond to the 1,500 tonnes of culture pearls that the market bought in 2010, then we are looking for a major income injection into rural areas, provided that technology embraces the concept of local industry on a small scale and great value that has characterized many industries like that of pearls. This is one of the fundamental concepts of the blue economy. Pearls have become a basic product, and jewelry emerged in this massive global industry of +25 billion dollars. The real opportunity is to create art, culture and jewelry centers because it is never possible to create twice the same stone sic and thus transform this waste perceived in beauty. It is one of the greatest transformations that we can carry out in our modern society.
