Avaliação da redução do consumo de vapor em uma usina do setor sucroalcooleiro utilizando a metodologia de análise pinch

Abstract

Brazil presents the biggest sugarcane production worldwide. Currently, besides sugar and ethanol, value is also credited to sugarcane ́s bagasse, which can be destined to energy cogeneration in the mills, and most recently the production of biofuels. In order to improve the use of bagasse, to increase income and potentialize investments, it is interesting to reduce its fraction used to provide steam for the sugar and alcohol process. One way to achieve this is through Pinch Analysis, which is a classic heat integration method. To evaluate a possible reduction in steam demand, this undergraduate work has the objective to conduct a case study in a mill, performing a Pinch Analysis to obtain the minimum hot and cold utility demands. Besides, this work proposes the integration of the bled vapour from the evaporation section of the process in the ideal heat exchanger network design to seek the best utilization for them. As the mill ́s network is already established, it is proposed an ideal network in comparison with the existing one. The analysis showed a potential reduction of 7,02% in steam demand for the studied mill.