ESTIMATION OF THE HEATING VALUE OF BAGASSE BLENDED WITH DIFFERENT QUANTITIES OF TRASH AS A BIOMASS FUEL

摘要

The introduction of legislation and requirements of environmental agencies will prohibit the burning of crops and associated harvest residues in the Colombian cane sugar industry by 2005. This has led to an increase not only in the use of mechanical harvesters within the industry but also manual harvesting and therefore rising levels of trash in cane. Opinions are split as to whether extraneous matter should be reduced in the field during the harvesting stage, separated at the factory, or processed jointly with the cane. In addition to these issues, the use of bagasse containing significant quantities of trash as a biomass fuel needs to be addressed. In 2003, Incauca mill and Cenicana undertook the first steps in a study that will cover the 13 Colombian sugar factories. This study is aimed at determining the effects of moisture content, ash and sucrose in samples of bagasse mixed with extraneous matter and their effects on the heating value of this biomass fuel. The results obtained showed that moisture had the greatest and sucrose the least effect on the heating value of this biomass fuel.