Rice husk question

[hughesyourdaddy]

I'm planning on building an oven, but as I live in Laos it can be difficult to source everything. I have been looking at readily available materials and after a bit of searching online I noticed lots of mentions of rice husk ash. But what I'm wondering is could I just use rice husk? This website I found:

http://www.naturalbuildingblog.com/r...om-insulation/

Mentions that "insulation value of whole rice hulls is over 3.0/inch", "Rice hulls are naturally fire resistant due to the silica coating on the hulls and therefore meet fire code requirements untreated." and also a "Ratio of rice hulls to cement is between 3:1 to 4:1, so only minimal cement is needed.".

So, could I use this in place of a cement/vermiculite mixture to form the main insulation material in my oven?

[hughesyourdaddy]

Does anyone have an idea about this?

[hughesyourdaddy]

Hello everyone,

I have come back to this project after a year or so and I seem to remember I had some replies that seem to have disappeared from some of the experts on this forum. If I recall correctly, they though that this would work and be a good idea. Can anyone confirm that?

[UtahBeehiver]

The blog was hacked earlier this year and with the restore, several weeks worth of postings were lost
.

[hughesyourdaddy]

Ah, that explains it then. I think it may have been yourself and David S who commented last year. Do you think using rice husk in place of vermiculite would work?

[UtahBeehiver]

Can't say from a personal perspective but I have read some articles about rice husk as an insulator and I recall the white paper indicated good K values (thermal conductivity) do a Google search.. So it "may" be possible to substitute for perlite and vermiculite when mixed with portland cement. See attached ratios. One has to use what they have available in their area so I would be interested if it works.