CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Gasification of agricultural residues from sugarcane harvests as an alternative for generation of distributed power in Tucumán, ArgentinaFederico J Franck Colombres, and Dora PazAbstractIn recent years, the use of renewable sources for electric power generation has been steadily increasing worldwide, mainly due to the expectation that there will be a depletion of fossil fuel reserves in the future and because of economic and environmental policies. Biomass can be considered a renewable source for generating "clean" energy. The province of Tucumán, due to its agroindustrial activity, offers good prospects for the use of biomass. Appropriate technology is needed to convert biomass efficiently, and a promising alternative is gasification. This technology could be implemented in a relatively simple way to generate electricity in a decentralized manner, at different sizes of installations, in places with enough biomass available. Using the Cycle Tempo 5.0 simulation software to solve matter and energy balances by taking into account a thermodynamic equilibrium model (Model 0-D), the potential power generation in internal combustion engines was evaluated from the gas obtained by gasification of the main residual biomass in Tucumán without substantial current use: sugarcane harvest residues. With 1 Mt dry weight basis per year of this residual biomass, 588 GWh of electric energy could be generated annually, 21% of the total electric energy consumed in the province. This would give economic value to these wastes, which would help to avoid their in-field burning. The energy generated by means of gasification could partly replace that generated from fossil fuels, which would increase the participation of renewables in the energy matrix, and generate social, environmental and economic benefits.Key words Bioenergy, clean energy, harvest residue, sugarcane