Comparative Analysis of Brazilian Residual Biomass for Pellet Production
Brazil is an important producer and the largest exporter of sugar, ethanol, coffee, orange juice, and tobacco. The country's availability of land, water and labour has allowed for increased production and exports. Continuing the trade expansion and divers
- PDF / 665,095 Bytes
- 8 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 78 Downloads / 193 Views
2.1 Introduction Brazil is an important producer and the largest exporter of sugar, ethanol, coffee, orange juice, and tobacco. The country's availability of land, water and labour has allowed for increased production and exports. Continuing the trade expansion and diversification of markets and products remain at the core of Brazil’s agricultural growth strategy (Valdez et al. 2006). The increase in crops generates a biomass residue surplus. It is known that approximately 30% of the sugar cane production is bagasse (Rosillo-Calle et al. 2007) and 22% of rice is constituted of husks (Eriksson and Prior 1990). This residual biomass can be transformed into a valuable fuel, becoming an important local energy source. There are several conversion technologies for biomass, based on the type, available residues and the market demand. Pressing of residues increases storage and transport efficiency. Pellets, briquettes, or any other pressed form can be used as a fuel. Recent research shows different combustion technologies for biomass: gasification, pyrolysis and combined heat and power (Rosillo-Calle et al. 2007). In Germany, Austria and Scandinavian countries, the compressed biomass, mostly wood pellets, is widely used for household heating. Moreover, the conversion of pellets into electricity has also been studied in decentralized power plants (Thek and Obernberger 2002). In Brazil, where heating is not necessary due to a tropical climate, the demanded product of biomass conversion is electricity. Here hydropower accounts for approximately 77% of the energy supply (Ministério de Minas e Energia 2008). Nevertheless, it has been documented that Brazil’s annual production of sugar cane bagasse can supply inhabitants with as much electricity
M. Schmidt et al. (eds.), Implementing Environmental and Resource Management, DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-77568-3_2, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
7
8
Bruna Missagia et al.
as Brazil’s largest hydropower plant Itaipú (Ministério de Minas e Energia 2008). Other kinds of residue, like wood saw dust and coffee husks, also have a great potential, either for covering the local energy demand or for export in form of pellets. The aim of this work is to study and evaluate the implementation of pellet production using residues like rice husks and sugar cane bagasse for energy generation in Brazil. Some properties of residual biomass were analysed at the Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU) in Cottbus, Germany. The first parameters investigated were moisture, ash content, calorific value, and ash melting point. The analysis helped the authors to determine optimal pellet mixtures of different raw biomasses with their best characteristics. Besides, the resulting blends were also based on the geographical and agricultural aspects of the crops. The conversion of biomass into pellets and pellets into energy could be applied for Brazilian biomass. This potential should foster research towards new power plant technologies for decentralized energy generation. Furthermore, the socio-economic
Data Loading...
