Sugar Cane (Saccharum spp.) Crop Residue Baling For Energy Purposes In Brazil

Abstract

The sugar cane crop according to several authors can generate, besides the industrializedstalks, an amount of crop residues from the order of 15 to 30% in weight of the aerial part of theplants, depending on the field conditions. The sugar cane area in Brazil is around 5.5x106 hectares,with an amount of 400.106 tons of stalks, with stalks yield of 72 tons.ha-1 (Unica, 2005). This studytook place in a sugar cane plot (Latitude 2246S, Longitude 4723W and 600m of altitude) with 3%of slope, located in So Paulo State. The sugar cane variety was SP 80-1816, in its forth cut, 11months old and with a planted row spacing of 1.40m. By other side, several sugar mills are bringingthe crop residue to their patio to produce energy with the bagasse. One way for that is the balingoperation to bring the crop residue at the sugar mill. Some fundamental variables were obtained todefine the best set of machines to work with in sugar cane crop residue removal in the baling systemamong the studied ones, some of the variables were: Soil Index (T1 = 0.83%, T2 = 0.46%, T3 =0.65%, T4 = 0.57%); Energy Efficiency (T1 = 82.48%, T2 = 83.88%, T3 = 82.83% and T4 = 82.97%)of the system and Effective Cost for Equivalent Energy in US$.EBP-1 (T1 = 11.10, T2= 10.46, T3 =11.47 and T4 = 10.57) of the baled trash delivered at the sugar mill.