Avaliação e caracterização da pelletização do bagaço de cana-de-açúcar e custos de implementação de uma indústria sucroalcooleira

Abstract

With the introduction of the laws that establish the reduction, or extinction of the practices of the pre-harvest burnt, a new problem arises for the sugarcane industry: the accumulation of by-products, such as sugarcane bagasse and straw. In this way a new problem emerges for this kind of industry, the gathering, transportation and disposal of this residual biomass. On the other hand, it is known that both sugarcane bagasse and straw have a low density, requiring a lot of space for their transportation. Therefore, there is a need to develop systems that enable the removal of this material from the field, maximizing the volume of the biomass to be transported, minimizing the cost of transportation. This problem can be solved with the technique of packaging the biomass, in bales, with the objective of a better and optimized occupation of space and less costs. This system could be improved with the use of organic agglomerates, which would further increase the density of the bale, further minimizing the number of trucks to be used. The main goal of this study is to characterize, within the pelletizing process, the main physical properties, such as diameter, length, humidity, density, durability, and ash content of the raw material and the final product. The second part of this work involves a study of the requirements for the implementation of the pelletizing process in a sugarcane industry.