Avaliação da produção de etanol em usinas flex de cana-de-açúcar e milho

Abstract

In view of the needs of ethanol production in Brazil during the sugarcane off-season, research indicates the use of corn in this period by the sugar and alcohol industries, mainly in the brazilian central-west region, as a solution. In this context, we intend to carry out the study and analysis of ethanol production from sugarcane and corn. The work was carried out based on a bibliographical survey on the unit operations present in the industrial production of ethanol from sugarcane and in the extra unit operations, present in the industrial production of ethanol from corn, as liquefaction and saccharification, possible to aggregate the brazilian sugar and alcohol industries in operation in order to make them flex. For this, data were collected from a case of a brazilian sugar and alcohol industry containing indicators of crop consumption and production. Ethanol production simulations from corn were developed in the Aspen Plus v8.8 process simulation software. The simulated process includes in its feed the composition of brazilian corn, the unit operations present in the sugar and alcohol industries and the unit operations of liquefaction and saccharification that can be aggregated to the sugar and alcohol industry to ethanol production from corn. The results showed that the use of corn for ethanol production in Brazil is profitable, especially in the off-season of sugarcane. With the data obtained it was possible to evaluate the costs of implementing the grinding, liquefaction and saccharification operations used in the processing of corn of US$ 1,360,200 with the installation and economic analysis of ethanol production in sugarcane plants and flex plants was evaluated. The average profit of ethanol production for sugarcane plants was R$ 168,838.72/day and the average profit of flex plants that use corn for ethanol production was R$92,158.97/day. In the off-season of sugarcane in the south-central region, 34,888.67 m3/year of more ethanol would be produced and a revenue of R$ 11,059,076.31/year would be generated. In addition, followed two months of operation in the off-season after the application of capital the investor will have recovered, in the form of returns, everything that invested with the implementation of the technology necessary for ethanol production from corn in his plant of ethanol production from sugarcane.