TECNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF SUGARCANE PROCESSING FOR ETHANOL AND ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION

Leal, Manoel Regis Lima Verde;

Resumo:

Brazil has a long tradition in the cultivation and processing of sugarcane for sugar production and already in the beginning of the 20th Century started to give the first steps toward the path of ethanol production. The electric power generation using bagasse went slower, initially aiming at reaching the energy self-sufficiency, and only in the last ten years the generation of surplus power for sale became an irreversible trend. However, Brazil has not been a reference in terms of technology and competitiveness all the time. Looking back from the dawn of the 20th Century to the present time one can see difficulties and adverse situations faced by the sugarcane sector as well as the impacts of the National Ethanol Program – Proálcool, launched in November 1975. Before the Proálcool, the ethanol production was aimed mainly at reducing the offer of sugar by deviating the sugarcane surplus to this new product, to be added to the gasoline on an available basis, but normally around 5% by volume. Besides the excess of production the sector also suffered from low competitiveness in the international market, both in the agricultural and industrial areas, due to lack of technological reference, in spite of the fact that the government in several occasions had made available low interest loans for modernizing the mills. The creation of Copersucar – Cooperative of Sugarcane, Sugar and Alcohol Producers, at the end of the 1950s, offered an opportunity to consider technological improvements due to the necessity to increase the competitive ness, necessary for survival, based on the size and economic power of the new cooperative. Thus, at the beginning of the 1970s, a sugarcane breeding program was initiated; an analysis laboratory for quality control and a technical department to support the cooperative mills were created. In 1972 the Federal Government created also the Planalsucar, a full program targeted to stimulate the technological development of the whole sugarcane sector, with a major focus in the genetic improvement of sugarcane.

Part 4 — A new Model for Industrial Production and final uses of ethanol :

Palavras-chave: ,

DOI: 10.5151/BlucherOA-Sugarcane-SUGARCANEBIOETHANOL_51

Referências bibliográficas
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Como citar:

LEAL, Manoel Regis Lima Verde; "TECNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF SUGARCANE PROCESSING FOR ETHANOL AND ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION", p. 561 -576. In: Sugarcane bioethanol — R&D for Productivity and Sustainability. São Paulo: Blucher, .
ISBN: 978-85-212-0822-8, DOI 10.5151/BlucherOA-Sugarcane-SUGARCANEBIOETHANOL_51