(435e) Analysis of Environmental Impacts Derived from Burning of the Sugar Cane Bagasse

Among the gaseous emissions from an ethanol distillery, that generated
by burning sugarcane bagasse at the distillery boiler is one of the most
important. So is justified a study to assess the environmental impacts caused
by burning sugarcane bagasse and its relation with the amount of steam produced
for maintenance of the process. Once optimization methods may reduce the amount
of steam used in the process, then it is possible measure the amount of gaseous
emissions that are released into the atmosphere. This work aims to assess the
economic relationship between the amount of steam produced and the amount of
emissions generated for its production in terms of ecopoints. Analysing the
gases generated by burning the sugar cane bagasse in a boiler of frequent use in
ethanol distilleries will be used the Ecoinvent
database for calculating the amounts of emissions reduced from burning bagasse
as fuel. The results show that is extremely advantageous economically to the
distillery reduce their gas emissions due to the reduction of steam production,
not only because the reduction of bagasse used as fuel happens, but also
because some changes in the process can require less mechanical effort in the
equipments and extending the life span of the plant. It was concluded that it
is possible to relate the process variables under study with the reduce of
environmental impacts in the utilities sector of this process.