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Biogas and biofertilizer from vinasse: making sugarcane ethanol even more sustainable

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Abstract

Brazil is the first producer of sugarcane ethanol, considered a green and renewable biofuel. However, for each liter of ethanol, 10–15 L of vinasse—liquid rich in organic matter and minerals—are generated. For this reason, this project aimed to assess the anaerobic digestion performance in a 4.5 L UASB reactor fed with vinasse containing 30 g L−1 and 41.2 g L−1 of chemical oxygen demand (COD). Increasing the COD concentration increased the liters of methane produced per grams of COD reduced from 0.19 to 0.25 and did not reduc e the macronutrients concentration of the effluent, that can be used as biofertilizer. Based on this experiment results for 30 g of COD L−1, a study case was conducted considering an average ethanol plant in the state of Sao Paulo, that produces 192 million liters of ethanol and 2.4 billion liters of vinasse per harvest season. Anaerobic digestion can increase the energy generation of this plant by 6%, avoiding 57,600 tons of COD to be applied in the field, and providing an effluent with enough potassium to fertilize more than 30,000 ha of sugarcane fields. Therefore, biogas and biofertilizer from vinasse can make the sugarcane ethanol greener.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agri-Food Industry, Food and Nutrition, College of Agriculture “Luiz de Queiroz”, University of Sao Paulo, 11 Padua Dias Avenue, Piracicaba, SP, 13418-900, Brazil

    Pietro Sica, Renan Carvalho & Antonio Sampaio Baptista

  2. College of Engineering, University of Georgia, 110 Riverbend Road, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    K. C. Das

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  1. Pietro Sica
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  2. Renan Carvalho
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Sica, P., Carvalho, R., Das, K.C. et al. Biogas and biofertilizer from vinasse: making sugarcane ethanol even more sustainable. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 22, 1427–1433 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-020-01029-y

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