In this study, energy-related operational parameters for modern and traditional (conventional) sugar mills are analyzed, with the goals of identifying improvements in energy efficiency and potential for surplus electricity export. Results show that the power- to-heat ratio of modern and traditional mills is clearly distinct, lying in the ranges of 0.3–0.5 and 0.04–0.07, respectively. Modifications under consideration for the traditional mills include the following upgrades: electric drives and higher capacity back-pressure turbine (case 1); high-pressure boiler, condensing extraction steam turbine and electric drives (case 2); and improvements in case 2 plus bagasse drying (case 3). The thermodynamic impact of these modifications shows that more power is generated as the modification becomes more advanced. Case 1 exhibits a modest increase in cogeneration efficiency (4%) as compared to the base case, while the cogeneration efficiency increase is more marked for cases 2 and 3 (21% and 31%, respectively). Surplus power was studied in a regional context, where it was found that the contribution of 19 retrofitted sugar mills in nine Brazilian regions could supply 30% or more power as compared to current installed power capacity. The economic analysis showed that levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) was lowest for case 1 (11 USD/MWh) and highest for cases 2 and 3 (58 USD/kWh).

This study is a comparison of four technological improvements proposed in previous works for the Cuban sugar mill Carlos Balino. These technological options are: (1) utilization of excess wastewater for enhanced imbibition; (2) utilization of waste heat for thermally driven cooling; (3) utilization of excess bagasse for pellets; and (4) modification of the cogeneration unit for maximum electric power generation. The method used for the evaluation of the technological options involves using criteria such as energy saving, financial gains, and CO2 emission saving potential. The results of the analysis show that the first three technological improvement options are attractive only during the crushing season. On the other hand, the last technological improvement option can be attractive if a year round generation of surplus power is sought. The first technological improvement option leads to only minor changes in energy utilization, but the increase in sugar yield of 8.7% leads to attractive profitability with an extremely low payback period. The CO2 emissions saved due to the fourth technological improvement option are the highest (22,000 tonnes/year) and the cost of CO2 emissions saved for the third technological improvement option (lowest) amount to 41 USD/tonne of CO2 emissions saved. The cycle efficiencies of the third and fourth technological improvement options are 37.9% and 36.8%, respectively, with payback periods of 2.3 and 1.6 years. The second technological improvement option is the least attractive alternative of the group.

Sugar cane mills are energy intensive industries andalso have a large potential of providing surplus energy interms of heat or power. Identification of heat and mechanicallosses in sugar mills is one approach in indicating energysaving potential in sugar mills, especially in traditional mills.Such assessment of the energy flows in sugar mills needs to bedone both in steady state and transient conditions (where suddenstoppages occur). In this paper, such an approach is consideredwhere a base case plant is modeled for steady state andtransient state operations. For the transient state study, a typicalstoppage is chosen and three different scenarios aremodeled. Heat loss calculations are done for major cogenerationunits and for the amount accumulated of the surplus bagassewhen the steady state operation is estimated. The resultsof the models show that during steady state operation, thelosses related to mechanical prime movers is on the higherside as the mills and shredder are driven by steamand generatemechanical power higher than what is needed by the mills andthe shredder equipment themselves. In the transient statescenarios, where fuel oil is introduced during press mill stoppage,there is steam wasted (steam that could have been usedfor mechanical power generation) starting from the periodwhere the fuel oil is introduced until the power required duringthe stoppage is reached. The CO2 emission during the use offuel oil is also quite significant during the stoppage.

The increase in global energy demand and environmental concerns is calling for a shift towards using renewable energy sources. Biomass is one of the renewable and carbon neutral energy sources that is being given attention.  The slow process in the shift from fossil fuels to bioenergy is because of the bulky and inconvenient forms of biomass for storage and transportation. However, there is an increased interest to convert biomass into easy to handle forms of liquid and gas through the major technological conversion processes available:-thermal, thermochemical and biochemical.

Sugar cane is one major feedstock for bioenergy production. This literature survey is part of a PhD project that focuses on polygeneration in sugar cane industry. The PhD project focuses on assessing the possibilities of employing the concept of polygeneration with the aim of improving the energy efficiency of the sugar mills thereby increasing the services from it.

Advanced power generation systems have a big potential to be integrated into sugar cane factories and thus help generate surplus electricity. Usually, sugar mills having mechanical steam turbines have higher steam consumption due to the poor efficiency of the mechanical steam turbines. Replacement of these turbines with electric drives will improve the electrical power generation since steam will be saved.

It is known that there is a significant amount ofthermal energy used for the sugar cane industry for the purposeof power production and for use in the sugar or ethanolprocessing in cane sugar industries. Likewise, it is understoodthat there are substantial amounts of waste heat that is notbeing recovered, in particular for traditional sugar mills. Regardlessof this, energy conservation is given less considerationas compared to operational convenience due to the factthat sugar mills are self-sufficient in energy (heat and power).The identification of such potential heat loss areas (especiallyduring transient conditions) suggests the sugar mills play avital role in energy saving. In this study, a modified setup ofthe base case plant considered in part I of this paper is assessedfor its energy potential and possible major heat losses duringsteady state and transient conditions where 2-h stoppage of themill presses are considered to occur. For the modified setup,there are two major scenarios considered having two subscenarioseach. The result of the assessment showed that thesteady state assumption scenario of the modified plant (wherebagasse drying is not considered) indicated a 20 % reductionin the losses considered which resulted in a 57 % power generationincrease as compared to the steady state model of thebase case plant. It is also possible to save excess bagasse bydrying the bagasse for later use during unexpected stoppage.The carbon dioxide emission (amounting 29 t/day in case 2aof this study) that occurs during the use of fuel oil during suchstoppages will thus be avoided. The simple economic analysisshowed that it is only in case 2a where fuel oil cost is includedin the operation cost that resulted in a negative NPV. Since therest of the scenarios use bagasse as a fuel which is free, theNPV for all was positive. For the electricity price of 0.04 US$/kWh and discount rate of 15 %, the minimum paybackperiod attained is about 3 years (case 1b) where the bagassemoisture content is 30 % whereas the maximum payback periodis 6 years (case 1a) where there is no bagasse dryingconsidered.