What is bagasse energy?

Above - Sugar cane fields in Queensland.

The term “bagasse” is defined as the crushed, juiceless remains of sugar cane after the sugarmaking process and it is used commercially for the production of wallboard and other materials. Australia has more than 50 years’ experience in the use of sugar cane fibre to generate electricity. The sugar cane plant is the world’s most efficient plant at converting solar energy, soil nutrients and water into chemical rich biomass.

Sugar accounts for about 10 per cent of Australian exports. Queensland produces more than 90 per cent of Australia’s raw sugar output. In 2005/2006, the total cane production in Australia was slightly more than 38 million tonnes. The Australian sugar industry income exceeded $1.3 billion.

For more information go to:
http://www.canegrowers.com.au/

To enlarge view - click here.

The Australian sugar industry has a very large potential for the cogeneration of electricity from the huge quantity of bagasse by-product. Typically, the sugar industry produces more than 10 million tonnes of bagasse during every crushing season. On average, one tonne of sugar cane yields 250 kilograms of bagasse. A cogeneration system uses steam turbine generators to convert the bagasse into heat and electricity, which help to run the sugar mill factory. The mills may send the excess electricity to the grid.

It has been estimated that more than 4,000 gigawatts per hour of electricity could be cogenerated if the sugar factories were modified to become more energy efficient than they currently are and so make better use of the bagasse resource. However, the capital cost of modifying sugar mills can be prohibitive. A potential solution is to develop new technologies so that the boilers are cheaper to install, operate and maintain and that they give increased output.

For more information on specific bagasse projects, go to:
http://www.stanwell.com and look up “education” then “biomass”.
http://www.greenhouse.gov.au

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