Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2978–2987

www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Analysis of process steam demand reduction and electricity

generation in sugar and ethanol production from sugarcane
Adriano V. Ensinas a, Silvia A. Nebra a, Miguel A. Lozano b, Luis M. Serra b,*

a
Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Caixa Postal 6122, CEP 13083-970 Campinas-SP, Brazil
b
Departamento de Ingenierı́a Mecánica, Universidad de Zaragoza, C/ Maria de Luna, 3, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain

Available online 31 August 2007

Abstract

The sugarcane industry represents one of the most important economic activities in Brazil, producing sugar and ethanol for the inter-
nal and external markets. Moreover, thermal and electric energy is produced for self-consumption, using sugarcane bagasse as fuel in
cogeneration plants. Almost all the sugarcane plants in Brazil are self-sufficient in terms of energy supply and in the last few years some
of them have been selling their surplus electricity for the grid. The reduction of process steam requirements and the use of more efficient
cogeneration systems are new alternatives to increase the surplus electricity generation. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the steam
demand reduction on sugar and ethanol process and alternatives for cogeneration systems in sugarcane plants, aiming at the surplus
electricity generation increase.
 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Sugar; Ethanol; Cogeneration; Biomass energy; Thermal integration

1. Introduction in these plants [3]. Reduction of process steam require-

ments and more efficient cogeneration systems can increase
Sugarcane production is one of the most important eco- the surplus of electric power generated. Currently, cogene-
nomical activities in Brazil, mainly due to its high efficiency ration systems begin to operate with live steam generation
and competitiveness. In this segment are found sugar facto- pressure higher than 60 bar [4] attending the plant energy
ries, alcohol distilleries and integrated sugar and alcohol requirements and producing surplus electricity that can
plants that can produce both products from the sugarcane. be sold. The total electricity generation capacity installed
In the last few years electricity is becoming a new product in the sugarcane plants using bagasse in Brazil is around
too, since sugarcane bagasse can be used as fuel in cogen- 2300 MW [5].
eration systems. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the steam
Currently, there are more than 300 sugarcane plants in demand reduction on sugar and ethanol process and alter-
operation in Brazil [1]. A total of 394.4 Mt of cane were natives for the cogeneration systems in sugarcane plants,
processed in the last harvest season (2005/2006) for sugar aiming at the surplus electricity generation increase. A
and ethanol production [2]. ‘‘base case’’, with high process steam demand was simu-
Nowadays almost all sugarcane plants in Brazil are self- lated. This case intends to represent the thermal energy
sufficient in thermal, mechanical and electrical energy. consumption of typical sugar and ethanol plants in Brazil.
Generally low efficiency cogeneration systems based on A thermal integration procedure was implemented in an
steam cycle with live steam at 22 bar and 300 C are found ‘‘improved case’’, reducing the steam demand reduction.
Different alternatives of cogeneration systems were simu-
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 976761913; fax: +34 976762670. lated for both cases, considering steam cycles and biomass
E-mail address: [email protected] (L.M. Serra). gasification based cycles.

0196-8904/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2007.06.038
 A.V. Ensinas et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2978–2987 2979

2. Process description source in the first evaporation effect, separating part of

the water presented in the juice that is used as heating
In sugarcane segments in Brazil most of the plants pro- source for the next evaporation effect. The system works
duce sugar and ethanol in integrated plant. Some of them with decreasing pressure due to a vacuum imposed in
use sugarcane juice for sugar production, being the molas- the last effect, producing the necessary difference of tem-
ses, a by-product of sugar process, used to produce ethanol perature between each effect. Vapour bleed can be used
in annexes distilleries. The use of sugarcane juice for sugar to attend heat requirements of other parts of the pro-
and ethanol production is very common too, reducing the cess, as the juice treatment heaters and sugar boiling sys-
sugar production in order to produce more ethanol. Plants tem. Part of the juice for ethanol production is
which use half of the juice for sugar production and half concentrated in five effects evaporation systems to reach
for ethanol production were considered in this paper. the concentration necessary for the fermentation pro-
Fig. 1 shows the sketch of the plant with the basic process cess. The other part of the juice for ethanol is by-passed
steps described below: to the fermentation process, to be mixed with concen-
trated juice and molasses for the mash preparation.
• Sugarcane preparation and juice extraction: washing sys- • Sugar boiling, crystallization, centrifugal separation and
tem is used to remove excessive amounts of soil, rocks sugar drying: syrup is boiled in vacuum pans for crystal for-
and trash delivered with the sugarcane before entering mation and then directed to crystallizers to complete crys-
the extraction system. After washed, sugarcane is pre- tal enlargement. After that, sugar crystals are separated
pared using rotating knives and shredders that reduce from molasses using centrifugals. Sugar dryer consumes
the cane fed to the mill into small pieces suitable for exhaust steam to reduce the moisture content of the sugar.
the subsequent extraction process. Juice extraction sys- • Fermentation: integrated sugar and ethanol plants use a
tem separates the bagasse and the juice by compression mixture of molasses and juice for mash preparation. Part
of the sugarcane. The bagasse is used as fuel at the of juice is concentrated to reach optimum solid content
cogeneration system and the raw juice produced is deliv- level necessary for the fermentation process. Good quality
ered to the treatment system. water is also needed during the mash preparation and for
• Juice treatment: some non-sugar impurities are sepa- CO2 scrubber. Fermented liquor produced has around 8%
rated by the addition of some chemical reactants as sul- of ethanol concentration in mass basis and is directed to
phur, lime, among others, being juice heating necessary the distillation system to be separated from the water.
for the purification reactions. After that, the juice • Distillation: ethanol produced at the fermentation pro-
passes through a flash tank, before entering the clari- cess is recovered by distillation. Before entering the first
fier. The precipitate formed into the clarifier is sepa- distillation column, fermented liquor is heated to reach
rated from the clarified juice and directed to filters. the adequate temperature for the distillation process.
After filtration, part of the juice returns to the process Hydrous ethanol is obtained by stripping and rectifica-
ahead the clarifier, and filter cake is rejected. The clar- tion stages. In order to remove the remaining water
ified juice can be then directed to the evaporation sys- and obtain the anhydrous ethanol, dehydration process
tem. Treatment of juice for ethanol and sugar is required. A large amount of stillage is produced and
production can be very similar deferring on the sulphur must be handled as an effluent with high biochemical
addition step, used exclusively for sugar production. and chemical oxygen demand.
• Juice evaporation: juice for sugar production is concen- • Condensates tank and water cooling system: the conden-
trated in a multiple-effect evaporator. Exhausted steam sate tank receives all the condensates generated in the
from the cogeneration system is used as thermal energy process excluding the exhaust steam condensate which
returns to the cogeneration system. Separate tanks are
used for hot condensates storage, like those originated
with in the condensation of vapours from 1st, 2nd, 3rd
and 4th effects of evaporation, being used as imbibitions
water in the juice extraction system and washing water
in sugar and molasses centrifugal separation and in the
juice treatment filter. The water cooling system is com-
posed by spray ponds that reduce condensate water tem-
perature to be re-circulated in the process as cooling
water for fermentation, distillation, sugarcane washing
and vacuums systems.

3. Process integration in sugar and ethanol process

Process integration techniques or methods can be used

Fig. 1. Scheme of sugar and ethanol plant. to improve energy recovery in sugar and ethanol process,
2980 A.V. Ensinas et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2978–2987

allowing the increase of electricity generation by the including, maximum utilization of vapour bleeding, use
cogeneration system. Some works are found in the litera- of continuous sugar boiling pans, replacement of direct
ture indicating the best options for the process thermal drive steam turbines of mills by electric engines and
integration in sugar process. Many of them use the pinch increase of live steam parameters and boiler efficiency.
point method and apply an exergetic analysis of sugar fac- Little information is found in the literature about etha-
tories. Guallar [6] made an exergetic analysis of a beet nol and integrated sugar and ethanol process. Modesto
sugar process with thermal integration. Christodoulou et al. [15] made a exergetic cost analysis for sugarcane eth-
[7] proposed a thermal integration of a sugar beet factory anol process and identified that the cogeneration system
using pinch technology to evaluate the use of six or seven generate more than 50% of the total irreversibility gener-
effects of evaporation with falling film evaporator and ated in the plant, being followed by the juice extraction sys-
plate heat exchangers. Tekin and Bayramoglu [8] used tem with more than 30% of the total.
structural bond coefficients to evaluate the influence of The distillation system of ethanol process consumes a
some operating system parameters on the beet sugar fac- large amount of process steam for its heating requirements.
tory exergy loss. Increasing on steam power plant boiler Rein [13] and Seemann [16] show that thermal integration
efficiency and reduction of diffusion and exhausted steam of the columns with dual pressure distillation system can
temperature, were identified as important measures for be used to reduce steam demand. The dehydration step
exergy loss minimization. Bayrak et al. [9] performed an used to produce anhydrous ethanol, normally operates
energy and exergy analysis of a sugar beet plant in Tur- with azeotropic distillation with benzene or cyclohexane.
key, concluding that most of the irreversibility generation Dehydration with molecular sieves can be used to reduce
occurs on the juice extraction system. A thermal integra- considerably steam requirements of this step.
tion of the process is recommended as an important mea-
sure of irreversibility reduction.
Other studies are applied to sugarcane factories. Ram 4. Process simulation
and Banerjee [10] evaluated two evaporation systems
designs using exergy analysis. Paz and Cárdenas [11] stud- A sugar and ethanol plant that operates 4000 h and
ied improvements on sugarcane factories energy balance crushes 2,000,000 t of sugarcane during the harvest season
using exergy analysis. Thermal integration of the factory was simulated using the EES software [17]. Sugar and eth-
is proposed using vapour bleeding, juice heating with con- anol are produced, being half of the juice produced at the
densates, sugar boiling with vapour from the 2nd effect and extraction system used for sugar production and half for
introduction of falling film evaporators. Ensinas et al. [12] ethanol production. Molasses obtained as a by-product
present a thermoeconomic optimization procedure for the of the sugar process is used for ethanol production, being
design of evaporation systems and heaters network in cane mixed with the juice for ethanol in the mash preparation
sugar factories. Thermal integration of the process was step. The bagasse produced at the extraction system is used
obtained with minimum cost of operation and investments. as fuel at the cogeneration system.
Rein [13] shows some opportunities to reduce the pro-
cess steam demand to get the cane sugar factory into bal- 4.1. Base case
ance or to be able to generate a surplus of bagasse for
cogeneration or by-products opportunities. These are some A base case was simulated, representing the typical
options presented: sugar and ethanol process in Brazil. The plant is not ther-
mally integrated and all the heating requirements are
• Maximum evaporation in multiple effect evaporators, attended using exhausted steam from the cogeneration sys-
not in the pans, increasing the solid content of the syrup tem. Table 1 shows some parameters adopted for the sim-
as high as possible. ulation of the process and the cogeneration system. Some
• Increase the number of evaporator effect. of the process equipments are characterized below:
• Use of vapour 1, 2 or even 3 on the pan floor.
• Minimize the amount of water used in pans and • Extraction system with electrified mills.
centrifugals. • Juice heating at treatment system from 35.0 C to
• Use liquid/liquid heaters to do the first stage of heating 105.0 C.
of raw juice with condensate. This also serves the pur- • Evaporation systems with five effects. Juice entering at
pose of cooling down condensates for use as imbibition 97.0 C in the first effect and being concentrated from
on the mills. 13.4% to 65.0% of solid content.
• Use of vapours for juice heating. • Sugar boiling system with two-boiling scheme.
• Increase the bleed vapour temperatures to gain more • Fermented liquor heating from 30.0 C to 90.0 C.
from bleeding vapour. • Distillation scheme with stripping and rectifying col-
umns at atmospheric pressure.
Upadhiaya [14] presents some important measures to • Dehydration system composed by azeotropic distillation
increase electricity generation in cane sugar factories, with cycle-hexane.
 A.V. Ensinas et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2978–2987 2981

Table 1 consumption for the dehydration step, substituted the

Parameters adopted for the process simulation – base case azeotropic distillation system with cycle-hexane. The
Parameters Value specific steam consumption of these systems presented
Sugarcane fiber content (%) 14 by Rein [13] and Seemann [16] are 2.5 kg of steam/l eth-
Bagasse moisture content (%) 50 anol for the stripping and rectifying columns and
Sugarcane pol (%) 14 0.05 kg of steam/l ethanol for the dehydration step (con-
Raw juice purity (%) 86
Filter cake pol (%) 3
sidering steam saturated at 2.5 bar of pressure).
Filter cake moisture content (%) 70
Syrup solid content (%) 65.0 Thermoeconomic optimization procedure, presented by
Fermented liquor ethanol concentration (%)a 7.6 Ensinas et al. [12] was used for equipments design. The pro-
Process steam pressure (bar) 2.5 gram was implemented with EES software [17] aiming at
Process steam temperature (C) 127.4
Mechanical power demand of cane preparation and juice 16
the best distribution for the vapour bleed from the evapo-
extraction (kWh/t of cane) ration system with a minimum cost of investment and oper-
Electric power demand of the process (kWh/t cane) 12 ation in evaporators and heaters. More details of the
a
Mass base. thermal integration implemented in this case can be found
in Ensinas et al. [18].
A new design of the evaporation system and the heaters
The heating requirements of the process are described in network was obtained promoting the use of hot conden-
Table 2, which shows the exhausted steam consumed by sates and vapour bleed as heating sources for other parts
each part of the process. of the process, reducing losses at the condensation system
in the last effect of evaporation. The heating steps of each
4.2. Improved case stream are described in Table 3.
The exhausted steam requirement for sugar and ethanol
A thermal integration of the process was performed to process was reduced considerably. Table 4 shows its con-
reduce process steam demand. Some measures were used
for this purpose:
Table 3
Description of heaters network stages for each stream
• Increase in the syrup solid content from 65.0% to 72.0%.
Stream Heating Tin Tout Hot Tin Tout
This reduces steam requirements for the sugar boiling step (C) (C) streams (C) (C)
system and increase the amount of vapour available
Raw juice for 1 35.0 78.5 Condensate 105.0 38.4
for heating of other parts of the process. sugar 2 78.5 85.4 Vapour 4th 94.4 90.9
• Sugar boiling heat requirements is attended by vapour 3 85.4 97.3 Vapour 3rd 103.9 102.3
generated in the 3rd effect of evaporation. 4 97.3 105.0 Vapour 110.2 109.6
• Heating of the treated juice with vapour bleed, to 2nd
increase its temperature close to the boiling point of Raw juice for 1 35.0 79.9 Stillage 100.0 40.5
the 1st effect of evaporation. This can reduce the ethanol 2 79.9 85.5 Vapour 4th 94.4 90.9
requirements of exhausted steam in the evaporation 3 85.5 97.1 Vapour 3rd 103.9 102.3
4 97.1 105.0 Vapour 110.2 109.6
system.
2nd
• Substitution of conventional distillation system by a
dual-pressure distillation system for the hydrated etha- Treated juice 1 97.0 104.6 Vapour 110.2 109.6
2nd
nol production. The re-boiler of the stripping column, 2 104.6 112.0 Vapour 1st 115.4 115.0
operating under vacuum, is used as the condenser of
Fermented 1 30.0 77.5 Mash 95.1 36.9
the rectifying column, operating at atmospheric pres-
liquor 2 77.5 80.0 Vapour 4th 94.4 90.9
sure. Moreover, molecular sieves, reducing the steam 3 80.0 90.0 Vapour 3rd 103.9 102.3

Table 2 Table 4
Exhausted steam consumption – base case Exhausted steam consumption – improved case
Stream Exhausted steam demanda (kg/s) Stream Exhausted steam demand (kg/s)a
Raw juice heating for sugar process 9.8 Raw juice heating for sugar process –
Raw juice heating for ethanol process 9.8 Raw juice heating for ethanol process –
Juice evaporation 16.3 Juice evaporation 23.7
Sugar boiling 10.5 Sugar boiling –
Sugar drying 0.1 Sugar drying 0.1
Fermented liquor heating 8.4 Fermented liquor heating –
Distillation 20.2 Distillation 14.8
a a
Saturated steam at 2.5 bar of pressure. Saturated at 2.5 bar of pressure.
2982 A.V. Ensinas et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2978–2987

Table 5
Process steam demand
Steam demanda (kg steam/t cane)
Base case 540
Improved case 278
a
Saturated steam at 2.5 bar of pressure.

sumption for each part process in the improved case. The

specific exhausted steam consumption for base and
improved case can be observed in Table 5.

5. Cogeneration systems

Four configurations of cogeneration systems were cho-

sen for the analysis of different alternatives that could be
applied on sugarcane plants. Thermal and electrical energy
requirements of the process must be supplied by this system
and surplus electricity generated is considered available for
sale to the grid. The simulations were performed using EES
software [17] assuming electricity generation just during the Fig. 2. Sketch of configuration I.
harvest season, when the sugar production process is in
operation.
Table 6 shows the general parameters adopted for all the
configurations here proposed.

• Configuration I: The first configuration analyzed is a

steam cycle with back-pressure steam turbine (Fig. 2).
In this case the sugar process determines the quantity
of steam that can be produced by the boiler, since there
is not a condensation system. This cogeneration system
is the most common in the Brazilian sugarcane segment,
being able to operate just during the crushing season
when the process is in operation.
• Configuration II: The second configuration is a steam
cycle with extraction–condensation turbine (Fig. 3). In
this case the condenser offers higher flexibility, being
possible to operate all around the year, in crushing
and non-crushing season. The condensation pressure
adopted was 0.085 bar.
• Configuration III: The third configuration analyzed is
based on biomass gasification. Bagasse dryer, gasifier
and gas cleaning system compose the gasification sys-
Fig. 3. Sketch of configuration II.

Table 6 tem, which produces the gas that is used as fuel in a

General parameters adopted for cogeneration systems gas turbine (Fig. 4). The gas is compressed to achieve
Parameter Value the same pressure of compressed air at combustion
Atmospheric air temperature (C) 25 chamber inlet. Exhaust gases from the gas turbine are
Atmospheric air pressure (bar) 1.013 used for steam generation in a HRSG operating at
Bagasse LHV (kJ/kg bagasse)a 7542 2.5 bar of pressure. Bagasse dryer heating demand is
Boiler thermal efficiency (%)b 85
attended by exhausted gases from the HRSG with
Steam turbines isentropic efficiency (%) 80
Pump isentropic efficiency (%) 80 200 C of inlet temperature as recommended by Conso-
Electric generator efficiency (%) 96 nni and Larson [19].
Mill electric engines efficiency (%) 96 • Configuration IV: The fourth configuration analyzed is a
a
Wet base. combined cycle with biomass gasification (BIG-CC),
b
LHV base. which, as the previously considered configuration, is
 A.V. Ensinas et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2978–2987 2983

Table 7
Parameters adopted for configurations III and IV
Parameter Value
a
Gas production (kg/kg dry bagasse) 2.3
Electricity consumption of bagasse dryer (kJ/kg of dry bagasse)b 35
Pressure ratio 11
Combustor outlet temperature (C) 1050
Gas turbine isentropic efficiency (%) 85
Gas compressor isentropic efficiency (%) 85
Air compressor isentropic efficiency (%) 85
HRSG pinch point temperature (C) 10
HRSG approach temperature (C) 5
a
Ref. [19].
b
Biomass is dried from 50% to 15% of moisture content [21].

for steam generation in a HRSG operating at one pres-

sure level. High moisture content of available bagasse at
sugar process makes dryer system necessary for the gas-
ification process, what makes the use of two pressure
levels at the HRSG not justifiable [20]. An extraction–
condensation steam turbine operates with steam gener-
ated by the HRSG, having an extraction at 2.5 bar for
the process (Fig 5).

The electricity is produced by gas and steam turbines

and consumed by pumps, dryer, compressors, and sugar
Fig. 4. Sketch of configuration III. and ethanol process. Table 7 shows the parameters adopted
for the simulation of configurations III and IV.
The gas composition, assumed for combustion simula-
tion at the gas turbine was presented by Consonni and Lar-
son [22] and it is based on a near-atmospheric gasifier
technology operating at 1.3 bar of pressure. The gasifier
consumes biomass at 15% of moisture content and gener-
ates a syngas that after cleaning system presents the com-
position shown in Table 8.
For configurations I, II and IV, three levels of live steam
pressure and temperature were considered to evaluate its
influence on electricity generation (see Table 9).

Table 8
Clean gas composition adopted for configurations III and IV
Clean syngas element Fraction (% volume)
Air 0.5
CO 21.7
CO2 11.4
CH4 2.9
C2H4 1.0
H2 16.3
H2O 3.2
N2 43.0

Table 9
Parameters of live steam
Fig. 5. Sketch of configuration IV. Pressure (bar) Temperature (C)
L1 60 480
based on biomass gasification, producing the fuel for a L2 80 510
L3 100 540
gas turbine. Exhaust gases from the gas turbine are used
2984 A.V. Ensinas et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2978–2987

6. Results Table 12
Electricity surplus for configuration II
6.1. Configuration I Surplus electricity production (kWh/t cane)
Base case Improved case
For the configuration I the following results presented in L1 65.8 90.1
Tables 10 and 11 were obtained. L2 71.7 95.9
As can be seen in Table 10, surplus bagasse between 4% L3 76.3 100.6
and 8% was calculated for the base case. Even increasing
live steam pressure and temperature, steam requirements
can be attended by available bagasse. New systems with the steam turbine, responsible for steam expansion from
higher live steam parameters can increase surplus electricity 2.5 bar to condensation pressure, produces around 2–4%
generation considerably, reaching 70 kWh/t of cane for the of the total power, requiring for that, new equipments as
highest live steam level as shown in Table 11. condensers and water cooling systems. Only for large units
For improved case, with lower process steam require- this condensing turbine can represent an important amount
ments, the steam produced by the cogeneration system is of power generation.
limited by the process demand and as a consequence, the
surplus electricity decreases. A second consequence is that 6.3. Configuration III
the bagasse surplus reaches more than 50% of the total
bagasse produced. In this case the large quantity of surplus In this configuration 420 kg steam/t cane can be pro-
bagasse may be used to provide steam for other by-prod- duced, being not able to attend base case steam demand.
ucts process or as feedstock for other activities. It could Around 29% of additional bagasse would be available to
be used, for example, for animal feed or as raw material produce process steam requirements of the base case.
for pulp and paper and boards production [13]. Other For the improved case, 34% of bagasse surplus is gener-
by-products could be also produced with bagasse as etha- ated, producing 67.0 kWh/t cane in the gas turbine. If all
nol and chemicals, but is not yet a reality on large-scale the bagasse were consumed, the surplus of electricity gener-
usage. ation could reach 114.9 kWh/t of cane, only 14% more
than configuration II with live steam level L3. Thus, config-
6.2. Configuration II uration III seems to be not feasible for electricity genera-
tion when compared with configuration II, which is a
In this configuration all the available bagasse is con- commercial technology.
sumed by the cogeneration system. The steam demand
reduction obtained in the improved case can increase more
6.4. Configuration IV
than 30% the surplus electricity generation when compared
with base case (Table 12). Moreover, this configuration
The possible steam production that could be obtained
permits the electricity generation on crushing and non-
using available bagasse in configuration IV is presented
crushing season.
in Table 13. As it can be seen, the possible steam produc-
For the base case, configuration II showed to be not
tion is around than 332 kg steam/t cane for live steam pres-
interesting, since the power produced by the last stage of
sure L1 and 302 kg steam/t cane for L3. This configuration,
as the previous one, can not provide the steam require-
ments for the base case, due to limitations of steam gener-
Table 10
Bagasse surplus for configuration I ation found in power cycles with biomass gasification. To
attend the base case steam demand, more than 60% of
Bagasse surplus (%)
additional bagasse would be necessary for the live steam
Base case Improved case
level L1 and almost 80% for L3.
L1 7.7 52.5 On the other hand, for the improved case, the steam
L2 5.8 51.5
requirements can be attended with this configuration, pro-
L3 4.2 50.7
ducing more than 170 kWh/t cane of surplus electricity as
shown on Table 14. This configuration showed to be able

Table 11
Electricity surplus for configuration I
Table 13
Surplus electricity production (kWh/t cane) Possible steam production with available bagasse for configuration IV
Base case Improved case Steam production (kg steam/t cane)
L1 54.7 14.2 L1 332
L2 62.9 18.5 L2 316
L3 69.8 22.0 L3 302
 A.V. Ensinas et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2978–2987 2985

Table 14 Table 16
Surplus electricity production for improved case with configuration IV Performance parameters for improved case
Surplus electricity production (kWh/t cane) Configurations I II III IV
Improved case EUF (LHV – %) L1 84.28 52.98 75.37 69.76
L2 84.22 54.07 75.37 69.91
L1 171.2
L2 172.0 L3 84.17 54.96 75.37 69.96
PHR L1 0.25 0.75 0.56 1.19
L3 172.2
L2 0.28 0.79 0.56 1.19
L3 0.30 0.82 0.56 1.19
gex(%) L1 26.01 23.10 29.93 34.86
to produce between 70% and 90% more surplus electricity L2 26.73 23.93 29.93 34.97
than configuration II, which also consumes all the available L3 27.32 24.60 29.93 35.01
bagasse. It is known that power cycle based on biomass
gasification is in a different stage of development than
steam based power cycle but when it reaches a commercial • Energy fuel utilization
scale the possibility of surplus electricity generation in
W e þ Qu
sugar and ethanol plants would be widely greater than with EFU ¼ ð1Þ
steam cycles. Ef
Other complementary fuels could be used to increase where We is the net electricity power output, Qu is the use-
energy input necessary for this configuration, being cane ful heat rate delivered to the process and Ef is the fuel en-
trash one of the most interesting ones for sugarcane plants. ergy consumed. The net electricity power (We) considers
This residue is usually burnt at the harvest field, but with the electricity generated by the steam and gas turbines, dis-
the reduction of this practice in the coming years, part of counting the electricity consumed by pumps, compressors
it could be recovered and used as fuel at the cogeneration and dryers where applicable. Ef considers the energy con-
system. Macedo et al. [3] estimates that a quantity of tent of the consumed fuel.
125 kg trash/t cane could be collected and used for electric-
ity generation. • Power-to-heat ratio
The natural gas is another option too, since it could be
We
used for co-firing at the gas turbine together with the syn- PHR ¼ ð2Þ
Qu
gas [23].
• Exergetic efficiency
6.5. Performance parameters assessment
W e þ Bq
Many performance parameters for cogeneration systems gex ¼ ð3Þ
Bf
are found in the literature but not all of them are consid-
ered relevant to a combined heat and power plant like where Bq is the exergy of useful heat delivered to the pro-
cogeneration systems of sugarcane plants, providing heat cess and Bf is the exergy of the consumed fuel. Exergies
for the process and surplus electricity to be sold to the grid. of vapour and gases streams were calculated following
Some of performance parameters presented by Horlock standard procedures [26]. The bagasse exergy was evalu-
[24] and Huang [25] have been calculated for the different ated based on Sosa-Arnao and Nebra [27] procedure.
configuration analyzed in this paper (Eqs. (1)–(3)). Tables The energy utilization factor (EUF) considers the useful
15 and 16 show the values calculated for base and heat (Qu) and the net electricity produced by the plant (We)
improved cases, respectively. as products with equal weights. This criteria is considered
not satisfactory to compare the different configurations,
once electricity is difficult to produce and more valuable
than useful heat [24]. Power heat ratio and exergetic effi-
Table 15 ciency are considered more useful to compare cogeneration
Performance parameters for base case systems [24,25].
Configurations I II For the base case configuration I showed to be more
EUF (LHV – %) L1 84.28 77.11 interesting for surplus electricity generation. It can con-
L2 84.22 78.22 sume great part of the bagasse produced by the process
L3 84.17 79.10 and generates almost the same electricity than configura-
PHR L1 0.25 0.25 tion II, with similar exergetic efficiency.
L2 0.28 0.28 Configuration III showed to be not interesting even for
L3 0.30 0.30 improved case. Its PHR indicates the deficiency of this con-
gex (%) L1 26.01 25.35 figuration to produce electricity, being respectively 46%
L2 26.73 26.17 and 213% lower than configuration II and IV for live steam
L3 27.32 26.85
level L3.
2986 A.V. Ensinas et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2978–2987

The adoption of configuration IV together with the pro- and managers for available process data and FAPESP,
cess steam demand reduction of improved case show the CAPES and CNPq for the financial support to do this
advantage of combined cycle. This configuration presents study.
the highest exergetic efficiency and PHR when compared
with other configurations.
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