Proposals to Maximize Electricity Generation From Sugar Cane in Brazil

Brazil’s sugarcane industry has been characterized by low efficiency in energy production as it consumes large amounts of bagasse as fuel in its cogeneration system, considering its low price and abundance. The possibility of selling surplus electricity to the grid has motivated investments in improvements, such as reduction of steam demand by means of process thermal integration and double distillation systems, and employment of condensing instead of back pressure steam turbines. Four different cogeneration systems were analyzed in this work: two traditional Rankine Cycles, the first presenting back pressure steam turbine and the second featuring condensing steam turbine configuration; a BIGCC (Biomass Gasification Combined Cycle) and an altered model of the BIGCC, comprised by an extra gas turbine set operating with ethanol. Thermoeconomic analyses determining exergy based costs of electricity and ethanol for all cases were carried out. The main objective of this work is to assess the proposal to maximize electricity production from the sugarcane industry in Brazil.