CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Fibrous sorghum as an alternative fuel during the off-harvest sugarcane season in Tucuman, ArgentinaM Carolina Cruz, G De Boeck and D PazAbstract. With the aim of minimizing the natural gas (NG) consumption during the off season (150 days) of a sugar factory located in Leales, Tucumán, where there is only a sugar refinery and an alcohol distillery, a study was carried out to replace fossil fuel with a new fuel of a renewable origin: fibrous sorghum. The physical-chemical and energy characterization of this material, and the normal work parameters of a sugar factory that consumes 90,000 Nm3 of natural gas per day during the off season were determined. This study describes the current situation of the sugar factory and proposes an alternative renewable energy scheme (ARES), which uses a renewable mixture fuel, composed of 30% fibrous sorghum, and 70% of sugarcane bagasse. The values of the physical-chemical properties obtained from fibrous sorghum are suitable for its use as fuel. The alternative renewable energy diagram uses 391.40 t/day (4.53 kg/s) of mixed fuel to replace the natural gas consumed during the off-season period, and also provides extra sorghum to replace the bagasse that was diverted during the harvest. The proposed scheme requires 45,490 tons of fibrous sorghum (979 ha) per season in order to reduce the consumption of the sugar factory to zero Nm3 of natural gas throughout the year.Key words Fibrous sorghum, fuel, off season