Resumen en español

The use of the rice hull is minimal in most of the Latin American countries and only a small portion is used as fertilizer or fuel. However, products of rice hull obtained by pyrolysis can be useful for abrasive and refractory products based on silicon carbide (SiC). Recently some applications have been developed to use SiC as reinforcement for metallic alloys for metal matrix composites. This paper reports the synthesis of short fibers and small particles of SiC obtained by controlled combustion of rice hull. The SiC synthesis was performed in a gas furnace, designed during the research. This process was optimized by an experimental design which included as variables the temperature, pyrolysis time, the type of catalyst, and process atmosphere.