Brazil to Power Up $182 Million in Biomass-Fired Boilers in 2014

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Link to Spanish: Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Cordoba, Argentina)--Despite a heavy drought that affected its crushing season this year, Brazil is moving ahead with the installation of 25 boilers that will utilize sugarcane bagasse as fuel for heat to vaporize water. Projects representing a total investment value of $182 million are forecasted to begin construction in 2014 and begin operating in mid and late 2016.

As a top sugar producer in Latin America, Brazil has relied on the use of biomass as a source of steam generation in recent years. Using bagasse is environmentally friendly (because it has lower emission levels than fossil fuels) and cheap, and it has allowed the country to meet its growing energy demand and avoid (or reduce) its use of diesel and coal. This alternative fuel consists of residues that are a by-product of the sugar production process, and it is burned in the boiler to produce high-pressure steam. Vapor generated is generally used in the manufacturing process and in the creation of energy, which reduces the plant's electricity consumption from the grid.

Boilers slated to begin construction in 2014 will provide 8 million pounds per hour of bagasse-fired steam for their respective plants. Many of them will require either civil works or structural modifications, as well as the installation of equipment that will control emissions and protect the environment, such as electrostatic precipitators, baghouses and scrubbers.

Adecoagro (Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil), for instance, will install in mid-2014 a 640,000-pound-per-hour boiler in its operational sugar plant, located in the city of Angelica (Mato Grosso do Sul). This installation will support the second phase of a sugar and ethanol expansion project, through which the facility will increase the sugar production capacity from 150,000 to 300,000 tons per year, and the ethanol production capacity from 170 million to 300 million liters per year. The investment for this project is estimated to be about $24 million, and it should be completed by the end of 2015.

Central Energetica Morrinhos S.A. (Goias, Brazil) will spend approximately $19 million on the erection of a new, 500,000-pound-per-hour, high-pressure boiler, which will run a 30-MW steam turbine, allowing the sugar factory to increase its current 12-MW powerhouse generating capacity to 42 MW. Electricity will be used to supply internal consumption, and its excess will be sold to the national grid. Plant officials say that they have decided to focus expenditures in power-related projects, as the price of sugar has decreased in the state and the price of energy has risen.

Among the preferred Brazilian equipment providers are Caldema (Sertaozinho, Sao Paulo), HPB SIMISA - Simonini Metalurgica Ltda (Sertaozinho, Sao Paulo) and Dedini (Piracicaba, Sao Paulo). These firms offer the equipment and engineering, procurement and construction services. Metso (Sorocaba, Sao Paulo), another company chosen as a manufacturer, it is a subsidiary of Metso Incorporated (Finland) and has been operating in Brazil for many years now.

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