Windrowing and prismatic baling of sugar cane vegetal residues: Some operational parameters and energetic efficiency

It was evaluated the energetic efficiency and operational parameters of a windrowing and prismatic baling, both from CASE NEW HOLLAND® operations in sugarcane vegetal residues (green leaves, dry leaves and tops) picked mechanically in green cane. The area belongs to COSTA PINTO MILL (COSAN® Group) which was harvested mechanically by combines in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The geographic location of the area is: Latitude 22°40'30S, Longitude 47°36'38W and Altitude of 605m. The variety was RB 82-5336, planted in 1.40m row spacing, with 78t.ha-1 yield. The vegetal residues analysis obtained 69.93% of leaves, 21.44% of stalks fractions, 2.27% of tops and 6.36% of total strange matter. The vegetal residues values were: gross heat of 18.43MJ.kg-1, low heat of 17.00MJ.kg'1 and useful heat of 12.94MJ.kg-1. The vegetal residues average energetic potential was 342.48GJ.ha-1. The treatments were simple, double and triple windrowing. The use of the rake and prismatic baler to pick up the residues was viable. The simple windrowing treatment presented the best results: effective capacity of 83.06t.ha-1, fuel consumption of 0.18L.t -1 and 99.95% of positive energetic efficiency. The bales obtained in the treatment of triple windrowing presented the largest specific mass average of 221.11kg.m-3. The soil amount in the bales increased with successive windrowing. The baling operation in the triple windrowing treatment obtained better results, presenting the effective capacities of 20.29t.h -1 and 1.45ha.h-1 and fuel consumption of for baled in 1.37L.t-1. The high total energetic efficiency of 99.53% indicates that is technically viable the withdrawal of the vegetal residues.

Non-nutrient heavy metals in tomato plants cultivated in soil amended with biosolid and sugar-cane bagasse compost

In this study, non-nutrient heavy metal concentrations (Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb) were measured in composts during the composting process, in compost/Red-yellow Latosol mixtures, and in tomato plants. Composts were produced using sugar-cane bagasse, biosolids and cattle manure in the proportions 75-0-25, 75-12.5-12.5, 75-25-0, 50-50-0 or 0-100-0 (composts with 0, 12.5, 25, 50 and 100% biosolids). The composts were applied to the soil, in 6 treatments and a control (mineral fertilization). Control and the 0% biosolids treatments received inorganic nitrogen and all the treatments received the same amount of N, P and K. Tomato plants were cultivated in 24-L pots, in a green house in Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil. The experiment had a split plot design, in randomized blocks. Cadmium, Cr, Ni and Pb concentrations were determined during the composting process (7, 27, 57, 97 and 127 days after compost mounting), in soil (0 and 164 days after mixing) and plants. The samples were subjected to digestion with HNO 3, H2O2 and HCl and the metals were determined by AAS. Negative correlations were observed between Cd, Cr and Pb in the compost and Cd, Cr and Pb plant uptake, as well as Ni in the compost and Ni concentration in the plants. The concentrations of Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb increased during composting. Only Cd levels increased when compost was applied to the soil. The roots accumulated Cr, Ni and Pb, the stems and leaves, Cd and Ni and the fruits did not accumulate any of the metals studied. The composts with biosolids did not increase Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb uptake by plants.

The sugar cane vegetal residues unloaded in the sugar mill: Operational costs and physical characteristics

Brazil produced in 2002/03 season 317.87×106tons of sugar cane stalks and 36.88×106tons of vegetal residues (green leaves, dry leaves and tops) in a planted area of 4.61×106 hectares (ha). These residues have a useful heat of 3,613.14Mcal.t-1. Currently most of this biomass is burned as a pre-harvest practice. The doubt persists in the system type that it must be adopted to pick up, load, transport and unload this biomass at the sugar mill boilers. This study analyzed 22 variables related to operational costs and physical characteristics of these residues in a field situation using a JOHN DEERE® 6850 forage harvester with two different treatments: T1 and T2 (two types of rakes) with 6 repetitions each one. The geographic location of the studied area that belongs to COSTA PINTO MILL (COSAN® Group) is: Latitude 22°40'30S and Longitude 47°36'38W. The adopted methodology was proposed by Ripoli et al. (2002). The obtained results at a 5% level of significance showed that both treatments did not differed significantly between them. Some of the results were, where EBP stands for Oil Equivalent Barrel: Windrowing (T1=US$0.17.EBP-1 and US$9.59.ha-1, T2=US$0.08.EBP-1 and US$4.27.ha-1); Pick up (T1=US$1.31.EBP-1 and US$44.29.ha-1, T2 =US$1.37.EBP-1 and US$48.36.ha-1); Transportation (T1=US$1.27.EBP-1 and US$14,30.ha -1, T2=US$1.33.EBP-1 and US$14,80.ha -1), Unloading at the sugar mill (T1=US$0.30.EBP-1 and US$3.39.ha-1, T2=US$0.32.EBP-1 and US$3.51.ha-1); Total (T1=US$3.05.EBP-1 and US$71.57.ha-1, T2=US$3.10.EBP-1 and US$70.94.ha-1). Confronting the obtained data with the ones in the bibliography, this system revealed itself more expensive than the baling system or the integral harvest system using combines.

Windrowing and cylindrical baling of sugar cane vegetal residues: Some operational parameters and energetic efficiency

The objective of this study was to analyze the sugar cane vegetal residues collection, as well as determining its energetic potential, using a rake and cylindrical baler, both from NEW HOLLAND® under two different windrowing process (simple and double). The field tests were carried out in an area that belongs to COSTA PINTO MILL (COSAN® Group) in the city of Piracicaba, Sao Paulo State, Brazil. The geographic location of the area is: Latitude 22°4030'S, Longitude 47°3633'W and altitude of 605m. From the trash analysis, before the baling, the following average results were obtained: 69.93% of leaves; 2.27% of stalks fractions; 21.44% of tops and 6.36% of total strange matter. The estimated residues yield was 27.01 tons.ha -1 with a gross heat of 18.43 MJ.kg-1, low heat of 17.01 MJ.kg-1, useful heat of 13.32 MJ.kg-1, average moisture of 20.76% and an energetic potential of 494,875.09 MJ.ha-1. In the windrowing operations (simple and double) the averages of the 5 out of 13 analyzed variable presented differences between them in a 1% level of significance in the Tukey Test. The averages comparison of the results for bale's specific mass and the effective capacities (ton.h-1) e (ha.h-1) had been significant at a 5% level in the Tukey Test. The comparisons of the averages for the results had been significant to 1% level. The strange matter averages of the bales did not differed between them.

Deposition and leaching of tebuthiuron on sugar cane straw applied with and without alkyl polyglycoside adjuvant

A laboratory experiment was carried out aiming to study the effects of an alkyl polyglycoside adjuvant (APG) on deposition and leaching of the herbicide tebuthiuron applied on sugar cane straw. Tebuthiuron, at concentration of 1200 mg L-1, was applied separately and in tank mix with the APG adjuvant, at concentrations of 0.07 and 0.09% (wt v-1), using a spraying volume of 204 L ha-1. A precipitation equivalent to 20 mm of rain was simulated, 24 h after the applications, to evaluate the herbicide leaching. The quantification of tebuthiuron was carried out by the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). It was observed that the addition of APG adjuvant at 0.07% (wt v-1) provided an increase of 11.5% in the deposition of tebuthiuron on straw, reduction of 50.4% in the drift of the herbicide and it did not affect significantly the leached amount (68.5%), when compared with the treatment where tebuthiuron was applied alone (70.8%). At the concentration of 0.09% (wt v-1), the APG adjuvant caused an increase of 22.7% in the deposition; it reduced the drift of the herbicide by 99.9% and reduced the leached amount by 7.6% thereby increasing the retention of the herbicide by straw.

Simultaneous determination of Cd and Pb in antibiotics used in sugar-cane fermentation process by GFAAS

A method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of Cd and Pb in antibiotics used in sugar-cane fermentation by GFAAS. The integrated platform of transversely heated graphite atomizer was treated with tungsten to form a coating of tungsten carbide. Six samples of commercial solid antibiotics were analyzed by injecting 20 μL of digested samples into the pretreated graphite platform with co-injection of 5 μL of 1000 mg L-1 Pd as chemical modifier. Samples were mineralized in a closed-vessel microwave-assisted acid-digestion system using nitric acid plus hydrogen peroxide. The pyrolysis and atomization temperatures of the heating program of the atomizer were selected as 600°C and 2200°C, respectively. The calculated characteristic mass for Cd and Pb was 1.6 pg and 42 pg, respectively. Limits of detection (LOD) based on integrated absorbance were 0.02 μg L -1 Cd and 0.7 μg L-1 Pb and the relative standard deviations (n = 10) for Cd and Pb were 5.7% and 8.0%, respectively. The recoveries of Cd and Pb added to the digested samples varied from 91% to 125% (Cd) and 80% to 112% (Pb).

Direct and simultaneous determination of As, Cu, and Pb in Brazilian sugar cane spirits by graphite furnace AAS using tungsten permanent modifier with co-injection of Pd/Mg(N03)2

A method was developed using the multi-element graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry technique for the direct and simultaneous determination of As, Cu, and Pb in Brazilian sugar cane spirit (cachaça) samples. Also employed was the end-capped transversely heated graphite atomizer (THGA) with platforms pre-treated with W permanent modifier and co-injection of Pd/Mg(N03)2. Pyrolysis and atomization temperature curves were established in a cachaça medium (1+1; v/v) containing 0.2% (v/v) HN03 and spiked with 20 μg L-1 As and Pb and 200 μg L-1Cu. The effect of the concentration of major elements usually present in cachaça matrices (Ca, Mg, Na, and K) and ethanol on the absorbance of As, Cu, and Pb was investigated. Analytical working solutions of As, Cu, and Pb were prepared in 10% (v/v) ethanol plus 5.0 mg L-1 Ca, Mg, Na, and K. Acidified to 0.2% (v/v) HNO3, these solutions were suitable to build calibration curves by matrix matching. The proposed method was applied to the simultaneous determination of As, Cu, and Pb in commercial sugar cane spirits. The characteristic mass for the simultaneous determination was 16 pg As, 119 pg Cu, and 28 pg Pb. The pretreated tube lifetime was about 450 firings. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.6 μg L-1As, 9.2 μg L-1 Cu, and 0.3 μg L-1Pb. The found concentrations varied from 0.81 to 4.28 μg L-1As, 0.28 to 382 mg L-1 Cu and 0.82 to 518 μg L-1 Pb. The recoveries of the spiked samples varied from 94-112% (As), 97-111% (Cu), and 95-101% (Pb). The relative standard deviation (n=12) was 6.9%, 7.4%, and 7.7% for As, Cu, and Pb, respectively, present in a sample at 0.87 μgL-1, 0.81 mgL-1, and 38.9 μgL-1concentrations.

Heat transfer in a packed sugar cane bagasse bed

Heat transfer in a packed bed of sugar cane bagasse, which is a potential biofuel used in cars and industries, percolated with air flow was studied. The fibers were washed, sieved, oven dried, and afterwards moisture content was adjusted to 4 and 47%. The relative humidity of the air, packing bed technique, and the initial moisture content of the porous media did not have a significant effect on the outlet temperature of the bed. Air flow rate influenced the averaged radial temperature profile, but not the temperature measured at the nearest position to the tube wall. At the end of the experiments, moisture segregation was observed, the lower bed depths being drier than the higher ones. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 18th International Congress of Chemical Process Engineering (Praque, Czech Republic 8/24-28/2008).

Influence of the vinasse application in sugar cane fields in Patrocínio Paulista, São Paulo State, Brazil

This investigation was carried out in Patrocínio Paulista municipality, located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Sugarcane has been extensively cultivated in the area in order to be utilized by the sugar and ethanol industries. The major effluent from the ethanol industry, vinasse, has been applied in the sugarcane fields as an alternative to supply several nutrients in crop production. Because it may represent a major environmental problem in that area, with implications to human health, soil samples from six points were collected and analyzed in order to evaluate the main factors related to the vinasse application in the ground. The importance of clays, iron oxides, organic matter and minor refractory minerals was also considered for explaining several relationships identified from the acquired data. © 2009 WIT Press.

Emissions from sugar cane fires in the Central & Western State of São Paulo and aerosol layers over metropolitan São Paulo observed by IPEN's lidar: Is there a connection?

The central and western parts of the State of São Paulo are well-known for vast sugar cane plantations, which during the harvest time are traditionally burnt about 12 hours before manual cutting. This procedure causes the release of large quantities of aerosols and a variety of gases, which can be observed by IPMet's radars, located in Bauru and Presidente Prudente, on days with no or little rain. Depending on the distance of these plumes from the radar, they can be detected up to 5 km amsl or more, and are subsequently being transported by winds to other regions. During the dry winter season of 2008, such plumes, attributed to cane fires, were frequently observed by IPMet's radars and documented in terms of radar reflectivity, time and location during the period 10 th - 21 st July 2008. At the same time, IPEN's Elastic Backscatter Lidar in São Paulo observed layers of aerosols of variable strength and heights above the city. The most significant days, viz. 14 and 15 July 2008 had been selected for calculating backward, as well as forward trajectories, deploying the European Flextra 3.3 Trajectory Model, which was initiated with ECMWF historic data with a 0,25 o×0,25 o grid spacing. The results presented here show an excellent match between the radar-detected sources of the plumes on 11 th July 2008 in the central parts of the State and the observations by IPEN's Lidar over Metropolitan São Paulo on 14 th July 2008, both in terms of forward and backward trajectories, as well as their heights, with a transport duration of approximately 70 hours under the prevailing meteorological conditions. © Sociedad Española de Óptica.

Glass-ceramic material from the SiO 2-Al 2O 3-CaO system using sugar-cane bagasse ash (SCBA)

Brazil is the world's largest producer of alcohol and sugar from sugarcane. Currently, sugarcane bagasse is burned in boilers to produce steam and electrical energy, producing a huge volume of ash. The major component of the ash is SiO 2, and among the minor components there are some mineralizing agents or fluxing. Published works have shown the potential of transforming silicate-based residues into glass-ceramic products of great utility. This work reports the research results of SCBA use to produce glass-ceramics with wollastonite, rankinite and gehlenite as the major phases. These silicates have important applications as building industry materials, principally wollastonite, due to their special properties: high resistance to weathering, zero water absorption, and hardness among others. The glasses (frits) were prepared mixing ash, calcium carbonate and sodium or potassium carbonates as flux agents, in different concentrations. X-ray fluorescence was used to determine the chemical composition of the glasses and their crystallization was assessed by using thermal analysis (DTA/DSC/TGA) and X-ray diffraction. The crystallization kinetics was evaluated using the Kissinger method, giving activation energies ranging from 200 to 600 kJ/mol. © 2011 Ceramic Society of Japan.

Initial analysis from a Lidar observation campaign of sugar cane fires in the central and western portion of the S̃ao Paulo State - Brazil

The central and western portion of the S̃ao Paulo State has large areas of sugar cane plantations, and due to the growing demand for biofuels, the production is increasing every year. During the harvest period some plantation areas are burnt a few hours before the manual cutting, causing significant quantities of biomass burning aerosol to be injected into the atmosphere. During August 2010, a field campaign has been carried out in Ourinhos, situated in the south-western region of S̃ao Paulo State. A 2-channel Raman Lidar system and two meteorological S-Band Doppler Radars are used to indentify and quantify the biomass burning plumes. In addiction, CALIPSO Satellite observations were used to compare the aerosol optical properties detected in that region with those retrieved by Raman Lidar system. Although the campaign yielded 30 days of measurements, this paper will be focusing only one case study, when aerosols released from nearby sugar cane fires were detected by the Lidar system during a CALIPSO overpass. The meteorological radar, installed in Bauru, approximately 110 km northeast from the experimental site, had recorded echoes (dense smoke comprising aerosols) from several fires occurring close to the Raman Lidar system, which also detected an intense load of aerosol in the atmosphere. HYSPLIT model forward trajectories presented a strong indication that both instruments have measured the same air masss parcels, corroborated with the Lidar Ratio values from the 532 nm elastic and 607 nm Raman N2 channel analyses and data retrieved from CALIPSO have indicated the predominance of aerosol from biomass burning sources. © 2011 SPIE.

Clastogenicity of landfarming soil treated with sugar cane vinasse

The addition of nutrients and/or soil bulking agents is used in bioremediation to increase microbial activity in contaminated soils. For this purpose, some studies have assessed the effectiveness of vinasse in the bioremediation of soils contaminated with petroleum waste. The present study was aimed at investigating the clastogenic/aneugenic potential of landfarming soil from a petroleum refinery before and after addition of sugar cane vinasse using the Allium cepa bioassay. Our results show that the addition of sugar cane vinasse to landfarming soil potentiates the clastogenic effects of the latter probably due the release of metals that were previously adsorbed into the organic matter. These metals may have interacted synergistically with petroleum hydrocarbons present in the landfarming soil treated with sugar cane vinasse. We recommend further tests to monitor the effects of sugar cane vinasse on soils contaminated with organic wastes. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Quantification of uncertainties associated with space-time estimates of short-term soil CO2 emissions in a sugar cane area

The characterization of soil CO2 emissions (FCO2) is important for the study of the global carbon cycle. This phenomenon presents great variability in space and time, a characteristic that makes attempts at modeling and forecasting FCO2 challenging. Although spatial estimates have been performed in several studies, the association of these estimates with the uncertainties inherent in the estimation procedures is not considered. This study aimed to evaluate the local, spatial, local-temporal and spatial-temporal uncertainties of short-term FCO2 after harvest period in a sugar cane area. The FCO2 was featured in a sampling grid of 60m×60m containing 127 points with minimum separation distances from 0.5 to 10m between points. The FCO2 was evaluated 7 times within a total period of 10 days. The variability of FCO2 was described by descriptive statistics and variogram modeling. To calculate the uncertainties, 300 realizations made by sequential Gaussian simulation were considered. Local uncertainties were evaluated using the probability values exceeding certain critical thresholds, while the spatial uncertainties considering the probability of regions with high probability values together exceed the adopted limits. Using the daily uncertainties, the local-spatial and spatial-temporal uncertainty (Ftemp) was obtained. The daily and mean emissions showed a variability structure that was described by spherical and Gaussian models. The differences between the daily maps were related to variations in the magnitude of FCO2, covering mean values ranging from 1.28±0.11μmolm-2s-1 (F197) to 1.82±0.07μmolm-2s-1 (F195). The Ftemp showed low spatial uncertainty coupled with high local uncertainty estimates. The average emission showed great spatial uncertainty of the simulated values. The evaluation of uncertainties associated with the knowledge of temporal and spatial variability is an important tool for understanding many phenomena over time, such as the quantification of greenhouse gases or the identification of areas with high crop productivity. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Thermal behavior of renewable diesel from sugar cane, biodiesel, fossil diesel and their blends

Biofuels and their blends with fossil fuel are important energy resources, whose production and application have been largely increased internationally. This study focuses on the evaluation of the activation energy of the thermal decomposition of three pure fuels: farnesane (renewable diesel from sugar cane), biodiesel and fossil diesel and their blends (20% farnesene and 80% of fossil diesel - 20F80D and 20% farnesane, 50% fossil diesel and 30% biodiesel - 20F50D30B). Activation energy has been determined from thermogravimetry and Model-Free Kinetics. Results showed that not only the cetane number is important to understand the behavior of the fuels regarding ignition delay, but also the profile of the activation energy versus conversion curves shows that the chemical reactions are responsible for the performance at the beginning of the process. In addition, activation energy seemed to be suitable in describing reactivity in the case of blends of renewable and fossil fuels. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.