Collection of sugarcane biomass

The use of sugarcane biomass is an increasingly present reality in sugarcane fields. However, defining how much straw should remain in the field and how much will be recovered in the windrow is a fundamental task to provide greater baling efficiency and make the operation viable.

Sugarcane is a crop where it is possible to use the entire plant. From the production of sugar and alcohol, to renewable energy, where the biomass remaining in the field is used through industrial processes to use by-products, there is a large application of biomass in the sector with an expectation of low environmental impact.

The large amount of sugarcane biomass available and remaining from mechanized harvesting, specifically straw and bagasse, is directed to the production of second generation ethanol and cogeneration of electrical energy. The use of renewable fuel sources is evolving over time, and biomass is considered by international markets as one of the main alternatives for diversifying the energy matrix, consequently reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

With the elimination of burning sugarcane straw and the replacement of manual harvesting with mechanized harvesting of raw sugarcane, sugarcane straw began to receive a lot of attention, as the large volume of mulch that is stored on the soil surface can cause problems related to crop management, such as, for example, difficulties in regrowth and cultivation operations, problems in the selective control of invasive plants and an increase in pest populations that shelter and multiply under the straw.

However, this accumulation of straw also brings benefits. It can prevent soil erosion, control humidity and invasive plants, and serve as a source for energy generation.

Aiming to minimize such problems, studies have been carried out with the aim of proposing estimates of the ideal amount of straw to be left in the field.

Studies show that for agronomic reasons it is recommended to keep about half of the straw in the soil, reducing erosion and increasing nutrient cycling.

Deciding how much straw the machines should rake and bale in the field is still a factor that must be carefully evaluated.

To improve the entire straw collection process and minimize operational costs, ensuring that the machines involved provide good economic and operational performance, the baling of sugarcane straw by machines has been extensively researched.

To achieve an economically viable straw collection system, planning is necessary to meet the needs of implementation, management and removal of the crop or remaining material from the field, being subject to the influence of external factors with emphasis on soil, climate, operational factors and qualified labor to operate the machines.

Combining the operational efficiency of the machines involved in the process with satisfactory economic performance is still a very big challenge in straw collection operations.

An experiment carried out by FCA Unesp de Botucatu at a plant in the municipality of São Miguel dos Campos (AL) aimed to evaluate the operational performance of two prismatic baling machines using sugarcane straw, in relation to the distance between bales, in which the machines are able to act, reflected in the final and daily production of bales and transport to the industry.

The straw collection was carried out in three different settings, defined by the rake implement.

The treatments consisted of: V1 = Collection of 90% of the total volume of straw; V2 = Collection of 70% of the total volume of chaff; T3 = Collection of 50% of the total volume of straw.

According to data collected in the field, the distance between the bales produced differed between treatments for each machine, that is, the amount of straw available in the rowing lines influenced the quantity of bales produced and the total productivity of each machine. The greatest distance between bales produced was in treatment V3, in which the average distance was 120,33 meters between bales, thus, when compared to their distance in V1, which was 61 meters, it can be observed that In fact, the volume of straw in the windrow influenced the distance between the bales produced in the field. These data directly reflect the dynamics of transportation of this material to the industry, as it is observed that the smaller the volume of sugarcane straw available in the windrow, the greater the distance between them. This directly compromises the production of bales per day in any company that works on the biomass baling line.

Therefore, it can be seen that the low volume of biomass in the windrow compromises not only the production of bales by the machines, but also affects the entire production system, taking into account that, when the machine produces a minimum quantity of bales and, consequently, , with a greater distance between them, operations such as collecting bales already produced in the field to be stored on transport trailers will also be affected, as the machine responsible for collecting them will have to travel even further to get the number of bales needed to complete the loading of the truck that will transport it to the industry or to the storage location, resulting in greater fuel consumption. The smallest distance between bales was for Machine 2, because this machine was able to recover a greater amount of biomass in the windrow and thus provide greater efficiency in straw baling.

Anderson Ravanny de Andrade Gomes, Tiago Pereira da Silva Correia, Paulo Roberto Arbex Silva, FCA Unesp de Botucatu-SP

Article published in issue 167 of Cultivar Máquinas.