Contribution of the sugarcane industry in alleviating greenhouse gas emissions
| MSI05P4122 | |
| Nayamuth, A. R. H. Cheeroo-Nayamuth, B. F. | |
| Contribution of the sugarcane industry in alleviating greenhouse gas emissions | |
| periodical article | |
| 2005 | |
| Proc. int. Soc. Sug. Cane Technol. | |
| 25 (2): 57-63 | |
| En | |
| En Fr Sp | |
| Signatories of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are called upon to periodically produce national inventories of greenhouse gases, and an appraisal of the sugar industry with respect to greenhouse gas emissions enables a refinement of this process. The study reported here consisted in drawing up a greenhouse gas balance for the sugarcane industry of Mauritius. The carbon dioxide stored in the total biomass and greenhouse has emitted during sugarcane production and sugar manufacture was computed on an annual per hectare basis. Of the total biomass fixed by the sugarcane plant, the stalk, representing about 59.3 per cent of the total biomass, is harvested while the remainder is left to decay in the field either totally or partially when the cane is burnt prior to harvest. Most of the sugar is exported, and all bagasse is burnt to generate electricity that is used partly during the milling and manufacturing processes. Excess electricity is exported to the grid, thereby reducing fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. For an average fresh annual cane yield of 87.5 t/ha, 70.17 t of CO2 were stored against an emission of 3.09 t CO2 equivalent from the sonsumption of fossil fuel. Pre-harvest burning and bagasse burnt for sugar processing released 18.24 t CO2-equivalent. Assuming the greenhouse gases emitted through biomass decay in the field and the sugar consumed to be counterbalanced by an equivalent amount being re-stored in the following crop season, the production system stored 23.12 t CO2-e/ha in the form of excess bagasse amounted to 32.3 kWh/t fresh cane or 2824 kWh/ha, thus avoiding the emission of 1.92 t CO2-equivalent from diesel or hevy oil, or 4.57 t CO2-equivalent from coal. This balance can be further improved by eliminating pre-harvest burning of trash, rationalising the use of nitrogenous inorganic fertilisers, adoption of green manuring, and reduction of fossil fuel used through improvements of crop husandry practices. The amount of electricity generated from bagasse and exported to the grid can be increased to 112 kWh/t fresh cane if the steam and power generation facilities are upgraded. Additional gain can be achieved if efficiency of process energy is improved and part of field trash is used as fuel. Biomass Integrated Gasification - Combined Cycle technology, when commercially-proven, would open avenues for further gain. | |
| Sugarcane greenhouse gas balance fossil fuel electricity carbon credit greenhouse gas emissions | |
| Mauritius | |
| Sugarcane: Environmental management | |
| Greenhouse gas emissions | |
| 2005-02-11 | |
| en | |
| LIB | |
| CAT | |
| Phys LRD |