Dican Techno, a start-up company that extracts silica and carbon from rice husks.

Jikan Techno is a start-up company that has the know-how to efficiently extract silica, which is used as a raw material for tyres and other products, and carbon, which is used as electrode material, from rice husks at high purity. Rice husks, which remain after rice is removed from rice plants, contain large amounts of silica and cannot be burnt in conventional incinerators, making their disposal a headache for rice farmers around the world.

Dicantecno has turned this headache into a business. The material cost is almost negligible, as the residues, which were originally costly to process, are used as the material. In addition, rice husks are produced in large quantities in rice-growing countries such as Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, India and China, so there is no need to worry about materials.

The fact that it is a carbon-neutral material derived from plants and the possibility of not having to depend on China for carbon has led to numerous enquiries from OEMs and tyre manufacturers.