Assessment of fuel consumption in sugarcane harvesters

In recent years, sugar cane harvesting has gone through an important phase of replacing manual cutting with mechanized cutting due to labor shortage factors, to improve working conditions and reduce environmental impact. The labor factor is due to the high cost of labor charges in Brazil and the shortage of workers to meet the demand for sugarcane production in the country. The environmental factor is due to the legislation imposed to eliminate the burning of sugarcane straw. -sugar, thereby reducing the harmful effects of this practice, both for the soil and the environment, leaving the straw as plant cover, with part (normally 50%) subsequently being removed for bioenergy production.

Considering all stages of the sugarcane production system, harvesting, together with the transport of raw materials to the industrial unit, represents around 30% of all operational costs involved throughout the crop. These are the main reasons behind the great advances that have occurred in recent decades in mechanized sugarcane harvesting systems.

Measuring the amount of fuel consumed is one of the most important aspects of evaluating the performance of a harvester, which largely depends on the way the operator carries out operations. In this work, the influence of cleaning equipment (pointer cutters, traditional cutters and with crusher and secondary extractor on and off) on the fuel consumption of sugarcane harvesters was evaluated, aiming to guide the way the machine operates to increase yield from harvesting operations.

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The experiment was conducted at the Santa Cândida Plant, owned by the Tonon Bioenergia group, located in the municipality of Bocaina, São Paulo. Two sugarcane harvesters were used: Case A7700 with a shredder-type tip cutter and Case A8800 with a traditional tip cutter device, in four conditions:

 

CONDITION	DESCRIPTION	THEME SONG
1	Tip cutter and secondary extractor connected	CPL,ESL
2	Tip cutter off and secondary extractor on	CPD,ESL
3	Tip cutter on and secondary extractor off	CPL,ESD
4	Tip cutter and secondary extractor turned off	CPD,ESD

CONDITION

DESCRIPTION

THEME SONG

1

Tip cutter and secondary extractor connected

CPL,ESL

2

Tip cutter off and secondary extractor on

CPD,ESL

3

Tip cutter on and secondary extractor off

CPL,ESD

4

Tip cutter and secondary extractor turned off

CPD,ESD

 

To measure hourly fuel consumption, two volumetric flowmeters were used, one installed between the filters and the injection pump of the harvester engine and the other when returning the fuel to the tank. The real consumption was calculated by the difference between the values ​​of the pulses generated by the flowmeters, which were sent to the data acquisition system, installed in the harvester cabin, with a frequency of one pulse for every 10ml of fuel that passed through the sensor.

To acquire and monitor the signals obtained by the sensors installed in the fuel supply system, a programmable logic controller (PLC) was used, allowing the reading and storage of the signals sent by the sensors. The data were subjected to analysis of variance and Tukey's mean comparison test at a 5% probability of error. The calculation of hourly consumption was carried out using equation 1.

The use of the secondary extractor increased the consumption of the harvester equipped with a shredder-type tip cutting device by 3,7L/h, while in the harvester with a traditional tip cutter there was a decrease of 0,6L/h; however, these values ​​were not statistically significant for both cases.

 

Table 1 - 5% Tukey test result for hourly consumption

Harvester	Condition	Hourly Consumption (L/h)
A7700 (Tip cutter with crusher)	(CPL,ESL)	54,2 c
(CPD,ESL)	45,5 ab
(CPL,ESD)	47,9 b
(CPD,ESD)	41,8 to
A8800 (Tip cutter traditional)	(CPL,ESL)	57,5 to
(CPD,ESL)	55,9 to
(CPL,ESD)	57,4 to
(CPD,ESD)	56,5 to

Harvester

Condition

Hourly Consumption (L/h)

A7700 (Tip cutter

with crusher)

(CPL,ESL)

54,2 c

(CPD,ESL)

45,5 ab

(CPL,ESD)

47,9 b

(CPD,ESD)

41,8 to

A8800 (Tip cutter

traditional)

(CPL,ESL)

57,5 to

(CPD,ESL)

55,9 to

(CPL,ESD)

57,4 to

(CPD,ESD)

56,5 to

 

The use of the shredder-type tip cutter resulted in a 14,6% increase in the harvester's hourly fuel consumption (6,1L/h); however, when the tip cutter, crusher and secondary extractor were connected simultaneously, the increase in consumption was 29,7%.

In the A8800 harvester, fuel consumption increased by 1,6% with the traditional tip cutter activated and increased by 1,8% when this same device was used connected simultaneously with the secondary extractor; however, these increases were not statistically significant.

 

 Click here to read the full article in Cultivar Máquinas issue 131.