New Method of Ethanol Production From Sugarcane Yields Water as Byproduct
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 07. 2.08
photo by Ben Garland
Here’s something that, unless you are intimately familiar with how sugarcane is processed, you may not be aware of: The most efficient Brazilian sugarcane mills consume about 1,800 liters of water per tonne of cane processed. Considering that by most assessments water is going to be an increasingly important and scarce commodity, the development of a system for processing sugarcane which not only uses no additional water, but actually produces water as a byproduct, is certainly an interesting development.
Brazilian biofuel equipment manufacturer Dedini has announced just such a system. Suitable for use both in straight sugar mills and those for ethanol, the method takes advantage of the fact that sugarcane is 70% water and uses this water in processing the cane. In fact, an additional 300 liters of water per tonne of processed cane is also produced. Dedini says that at some plants in excess of 3.6 million liters of water can be produced per day in this manner.
A spokesperson for Dedini told Reuters that, “The quality of the resulting water is better than the one from rivers.” This isn’t to say that the water is potable however. In its press release, Dedini said the water is only suitable for industrial uses or for irrigation.
via :: Dedini and :: Reuters
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3.6 million liters a day? wow. In the U.S. that would be enough for the industrial and agricultural use of at least 150 people.
This comment isn't really about the article- I'm psyched that a process change could make converting sugar cane to ethanol go from consuming large amounts of fresh water to producing fresh water. It is more about the wastefulness of the U.S. Sorry.
Anyway, we should remember that this also means that if existing surgar mills are converted from the current process to this new one, the net gain isn't the 3.6 million liters per day mentioned above. It is seven times that, because you also save the 1800 liters per tone you are using now.