POTENTIAL OF BY-PRODUCTS FROM THE PRODUCTION PROCESS OF COFFEE, RICE, SUGAR CANE AND CORN IN COLOMBIA

摘要

Colombia bases its economy on agricultural production and agro-industry, among the main agriculturalproducts, we find rice and coffee, and on the agro-industries’ products we have Brown Sugarloaf and Sugar, obtainedfrom sugar cane, and corn flour using Corn feedstock. The process for obtaining these five products generate abouteleven million tons of wastes annually, of which only a small amount is used in its generation point either asfertilizer, animal feed or heat generation in the same process. Agricultural residues as well as being large in amount,may be used for power generation as biomass because they have an appreciable heat value. The wastes generated byagriculture and agro industry could provide a solution to the problem of electricity generation, in addition if this istreated with direct burning, it generates around 29.4 TWh per year, this amount could supply about twenty eightmillion people with energy.