An assessment of the potential for sugarcane bagasse and trash pellets market.

It is well known that the fibre of sugarcane represents around two thirds of the primary energy available in the plant and that this energy potential is very poorly converted to useful energy products. With the increasing green cane harvesting in some countries like Brazil and Australia, the availability of trash is becoming a reality which adds quite a potential to the already used bagasse. The first tentative effort to use this trash and surplus bagasse for energy products is being directed to extend the surplus power generation by the mills, thus increasing the revenues from this new product. In the future, they may be used as feedstocks for second generation biofuel production. In both cases, high investment costs are required and the economies of scale can be a problem in the economic viability of the business and it becomes important to find other potential uses for the two residues. There are many alternatives but, for energy products, one that seems attractive is the use of bagasse and trash as fuel in other plants. However, for that it is important to find ways to reduce the transport costs by increasing the mass and energy density by processes such as pelletising, torrefaction and briquetting. This work makes an assessment of the global market for the case of pellets, and indicates the present volumes and prices as well as quality and certification requirements. The results show that there is room to consider this alternative of pellets11613813034International society of sugar cane technologists : proceedings of the XXVIIIth congres