Strategy to supply all-year round renewable energy to sugarcane countries
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Abstract
There are sugar mills in 27 Latin American and Caribbean countries that process 1500 million tons of sugar cane per year and produce 450 million tons of bagasse. Bagasse is the fuel the sugar mills use to cover their heat and power needs. Power is produced with low efficiency and during sugarcane season only. Therefore, electricity distributors are not attracted to buy it at a good price and, as a consequence, sugar mills are not interested in investing to improve power efficiency and to produce it all year round.
It is proposed to consider high-fiber cane as «energy» cane to be used as fuel out of the sugar season and to be burnt whole, without extracting its juice, to avoid mill work out of season. New Biopower Plants could be built with up-to-date existing technology and high efficiency that allow 65 times more electricity and sell 470 000 GWh to the grid. The electricity potentially substitutes 100 million tons of fossil fuel and saves 350 million tons of carbon credits every year. Emissions will contain far less nitrogen and sulfur oxides than the ones from fossil fuels.
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References
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