Electricity Production from Sugarcane Straw Recovered Through Bale System: Assessment of Retrofit Projects
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Electricity Production from Sugarcane Straw Recovered Through Bale System: Assessment of Retrofit Projects Isabelle L. M. Sampaio 1,2 & Terezinha F. Cardoso 1 & Nariê R. D. Souza 1,2 & Marcos D. B. Watanabe 1,2 & Danilo J. Carvalho 1 & Antonio Bonomi 1,3 & Tassia Lopes Junqueira 1,2
# The Author(s) 2019
Abstract Sugarcane straw has become available in large quantities in the field due to transition from manual to mechanical harvesting. Straw can be used as fuel for cogeneration systems of sugarcane mills to increase surplus electricity for commercialization. However, the exploitation of straw potential is still limited due to some challenges related to its agricultural recovery and industrial processing. The retrofit (additional installation) of existing sugarcane mills to process straw is an alternative to reduce investment and to allow a gradual utilization of this biomass. In this work, techno-economic and environmental assessment of straw recovery through bale system to increase electricity export was assessed. Two scenarios with straw recovery and processing were defined to take advantage of an existing cogeneration system, considering its operation in the season and off-season periods. An increase of up to 57% on surplus electricity was achieved. Both scenarios resulted in economically feasible alternatives. However, results were very sensitive to the variations on electricity prices and straw costs. In terms of environmental benefits, the bioelectricity presented a great potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions compared with natural gas–based electricity. The higher electricity surplus also affects the carbon intensity of ethanol, which can lead to indirect gains when the Brazilian program for biofuels incentive is implemented. Keywords Sugarcane straw . Bale system . Electricity . Economic assessment . Greenhouse gas Emissions
Introduction In Brazil, a transition from manual to mechanical harvesting has been observed in the sugarcane sector, especially in the Center-South region of Brazil. This transition was motivated by legislation prohibiting sugarcane pre-harvesting burning and other economic, social, and environmental issues related to the manual harvesting [1, 2]. Nowadays, mechanical harvesting in this region has reached 97% of the crop area [3].
* Tassia Lopes Junqueira [email protected] 1
Laboratório Nacional de Biorrenováveis (LNBR), Centro Nacional de Pesquisa em Energia e Materiais (CNPEM), Campinas, São Paulo 13083-970, Brasil
2
Programa Integrado de Pós-Graduação em Bionergia, Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos (FEA), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Rua Monteiro Lobato 80, Campinas, São Paulo 13083-862, Brasil
3
Faculdade de Engenharia Química (FEQ), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Av. Albert Einstein, 500, Campinas, São Paulo 13083-852, Brasil
Cardoso et al. [1] compared scenarios with manual and mechanical harvesting. In terms of green (non-burned) cane harvesting, mechanization presented lower sugarcane production costs. Also, changin
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