Combustion of bagasse: Use of an agricultural-derived waste

The recent escalation in price of conventional fossil fuels and their uncertain availability has precipitated an intense effort world-wide to develop so called ‘unconventional’ or ‘alternative’ fuels. The waste product from the sugar cane grinding process, termed bagasse, represents an agricultural energy resource which is increasingly used in the sugar industry as a fuel. Currently, the pile burning configuration involving high excess air levels and low combustion efficiencies constitutes the major method of bagasse combustion. This Paper reports on a novel burner which has been developed to burn bagasse efficiently in full-suspension at low excess air levels (down to 5%) thereby generating high combustion efficiencies. To accomplish this excess air level the bagasse was dried to a maximum of 16% moisture and pulverized so that 60–65% passed a 30 US Standard Sieve mesh. A discussion is included concerning optimum methods of bagasse preparation for this system.