Abstract

GOLATO, Marcos A. et al. Preliminary study of the utilization of agricultural residues from sugarcane harvest as additional fuel for the bagasse boilers of Tucumán (Argentina). Rev. ind. agric. Tucumán [online]. 2017, vol.94, n.2, pp.21-31. ISSN 1851-3018.

The need to rationalize the consumption of fossil fuels has led to explore new energy sources. The sugar industry in Tucuman, Argentina, used mainly as additional fuel in steam boilers bagasse, natural gas (NG), which has high acquisition costs and in some cases lack of availability. A preliminary study for the energy use of agricultural crop residue of sugarcane (RAC) as alternative additional fuel in bagasse boilers of the mills of Tucuman, Argentina, was made. To do this the RAC was naturally drying and then transported to the factory to be crushed and mixed with bagasse to feed the boilers. The preliminary tests show that it is possible to burn mixtures of RAC and bagasse in conventional bagasse boilers. To a weight ratio of 75% bagasse and 25% of RAC, stable combustion was achieved, the efficiency increased by 6%. A 43% bagasse saving relative to the same steam quantity was attained over the boiler operating only with bagasse, without any additional fuel. The steam production increased by 21%, and boiler structural modifications was not required. The necessary RAC to replace the additional fossil fuel Tucuman's sugar industry would be approximately 18% of the available RAC, whereby in addition to completely eliminate the consumption of natural gas (NG) of the mills Tucuman, would remain even surplus bagasse and RAC available for another uses, such as increased production of bioelectricity for sale to the grid, paper production, production of biomaterials, among others. Considering for the province of Tucuman a production of 14 million tons cane / year, NG saving would be around 70 million Nm3 NG / year.

Keywords : natural drying; conditioning; combustion; biomass.