Products from the delignification of sugarcane bagasse

Abstract

The main drawbacks of most of the sugar mills can be summarized in the generation of a low added value product, with a peak of activity in the period of harvesting. The lignocellulosic residue of the sugar extraction is usually burned as fuel. However, sugarcane can be a source of multiple products. The overall goal of this project was to study the technical and economic feasibility of the production of unconventional derivatives of sugarcane bagasse, using environmentally friendly and economically competitive technologies. From a point of view of the integrated utilization of sugarcane, we have worked with a strategy that aims to study the use of biomass for chemicals and energy, through an appropriate combination of process engineering and product engineering. We studied different processes, including technologies that employ mostly ethanol, generated by the same industry and proposing alternative uses of the sugarcane bagasse. The approach is applicable to industries in the Latin American region. This chapter presents the main results obtained throughout the project.