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Bagasse ( ) is the dry pulpy fibrous material that remains after crushing
sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...
or
sorghum ''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many othe ...
stalks to extract their juice. It is used as a
biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (E ...
for the production of heat, energy, and electricity, and in the manufacture of
pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit Engineering * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Molded pulp, a packaging material ...
and building materials. Agave bagasse is similar, but is the material remnants after extracting
blue agave ''Agave tequilana'', commonly called blue agave () or tequila agave, is an agave plant that is an important economic product of Jalisco, Mexico, due to its role as the base ingredient of tequila, a popular distilled beverage. The high productio ...
sap.


Etymology

The word comes from ''bagage'' (French) and ''bagazo'' (Spanish), meaning ''refuse'' or ''trash''. It originally referred to the material left after pressing olives, palm nuts, and grapes. The word eventually came to be used in the context of processing of plants such as sugarcane and sugar beets. Today, it usually refers to by-products of the sugarcane mill.


Description

Bagasse is the solid by-product when the liquid components are extracted from plants. Much of the core of those plants is a
heterogeneous Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts often used in the sciences and statistics relating to the uniformity of a substance or organism. A material or image that is homogeneous is uniform in composition or character (i.e. color, shape, siz ...
"pith" fibre. This fibre is primarily
parenchyma Parenchyma () is the bulk of functional substance in an animal organ or structure such as a tumour. In zoology it is the name for the tissue that fills the interior of flatworms. Etymology The term ''parenchyma'' is New Latin from the word π ...
tissue, along with bast, rind, or stem fibers of the
sclerenchyma The ground tissue of plants includes all tissues that are neither Epidermis (botany), dermal nor Vascular tissue, vascular. It can be divided into three types based on the nature of the cell walls. # Parenchyma cells have thin primary walls and ...
. Here's an example chemical analysis of washed and dried bagasse: *
Cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall ...
: 45–55% *
Hemicellulose A hemicellulose (also known as polyose) is one of a number of heteropolymer, heteropolymers (matrix polysaccharides), such as arabinoxylans, present along with cellulose in almost all embryophyte, terrestrial plant cell walls.Scheller HV, Ulvskov H ...
: 20–25% *
Lignin Lignin is a class of complex organic polymers that form key structural materials in the support tissues of most plants. Lignins are particularly important in the formation of cell walls, especially in wood and bark, because they lend rigidity ...
: 18–24% *Ash: 1–4% *
Wax Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to giv ...
es: <1%


Production

For every 10
tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000  kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
s of sugarcane crushed, a sugar factory produces nearly three tonnes of wet bagasse. It's challenging to use this byproduct directly as a fuel because of the high moisture content, typically 40–50 percent. Instead, bagasse is typically stored prior to further processing. For electricity production, the bagasse is stored under moist conditions. Under these conditions, the bagasse undergoes a mild
exothermic process In thermodynamics, an exothermic process () is a thermodynamic process or reaction that releases energy from the system to its surroundings, usually in the form of heat, but also in a form of light (e.g. a spark, flame, or flash), electricity ( ...
as the residual sugars slightly degrade. For paper and pulp production, the bagasse is normally stored wet so as to facilitate the subsequent removal of any remaining sugar as well as the short
pith Pith, or medulla, is a tissue in the stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other ...
fibres. These fibres would impede the paper making process.


Uses

Numerous research efforts have explored using bagasse in the production of
bio-based material A bio-based material is a material intentionally made from substances derived from living (or once-living) organisms. These materials are sometimes referred to as biomaterials, but this word also has another meaning. Strictly the definition could ...
s and as a
biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (E ...
in renewable
power generation Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery ( transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its stor ...
.


Fuel

Sugar mills often use bagasse as a primary fuel source. When burned in quantity, bagasse produces enough heat energy to fully power a typical sugar mill, with some energy to spare.
Cogeneration Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elect ...
is a common setup, with this extra energy sold to the consumer
electrical grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...
. Historically, bagasse was also used to fuel
steam locomotives A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
that brought the cut cane to the mills. The CO2 emissions from burning the bagasse in a sugarcane plant is less than the amount of CO2 absorbed from the atmosphere when the sugarcane grows, which could make the process carbon-neutral or better. In contrast, a study in the ''International Journal of Global Warming'' warned that electricity generation with bagasse would never be fully carbon-free but did represent a large reduction in carbon emissions compared to the use of
diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...
. In countries such as Australia, sugar factories contribute this "green" power to the electricity grid.
Hawaiian Electric Industries Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (HEI; ) is the largest supplier of electricity in the state of Hawaii, supplying power to 95% of Hawaii's population through its electric utilities: Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., Hawai'i Electric Light Comp ...
also burns bagasse for cogeneration.
Ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...
produced from the sugar is a popular fuel in Brazil. The cellulose-rich bagasse is also being investigated for its potential in producing commercial quantities of
cellulosic ethanol Cellulosic ethanol is ethanol (ethyl alcohol) produced from cellulose (the stringy fiber of a plant) rather than from the plant's seeds or fruit. It can be produced from grasses, wood, algae, or other plants. It is generally discussed for use as a ...
. For example, until May 2015, BP operated a cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in
Jennings, Louisiana Jennings is a city in, and the parish seat of, Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana, United States, near Lake Charles. The population was 10,383 at the 2010 census, a small decline from the 2000 tabulation. The city is 68 percent white. Jennings is ...
. Bagasse's potential for use in advanced biofuels has been demonstrated by several researchers. However, the suitability of these crude fuels for conventional engines and their compatibility with conventional fuels and has not yet been proven.


Pulp, paper, board and feed

In many tropical and subtropical countries such as India, China, Colombia, Iran, Thailand, and Argentina, Bagasse is commonly used instead of wood in the production of pulp, paper and board. This substitution produces pulp with physical properties that are well suited for printing and notebook paper, tissue products, boxes, and newspapers. It can also be used for making boards resembling plywood or particle board, known called bagasse boards and Xanita boards. These are widely used in the production of partitions and furniture. The industrial process to convert bagasse into paper was developed in 1937 at a small laboratory in Hacienda Paramonga, a sugar mill on the coast of Peru owned by the W.R. Grace Company. Using a promising method invented by
Clarence Birdseye Clarence Birdseye (December 9, 1886 – October 7, 1956) was an American inventor, entrepreneur, and naturalist, considered the founder of the modern frozen food industry. He founded the frozen food company Birds Eye. Among his inventions during h ...
, the company bought an old paper mill in Whippany, New Jersey and shipped bagasse from Peru there to test the viability of the process on an industrial scale. The first bagasse paper manufacturing machines were designed in Germany and installed in the Cartavio sugar cane plant in 1938. On January 26-27, 1950, the Noble & Wood Machine Company, the Kinsley Chemical Company, and the Chemical Paper Company jointly demonstrated the first successful commercial production of
newsprint Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has an ...
produced from bagasse at Chemical Paper's mills in
Holyoke Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,238. Located north of Springfield ...
. The process's first use was in the printing of a special edition of the ''
Holyoke Transcript-Telegram The ''Holyoke Transcript-Telegram'', or ''T‑T'', was an afternoon daily newspaper covering the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, United States, and adjacent portions of Hampden County and Hampshire County. Published as a daily since 1882, after ...
''. This demonstration was done in collaboration with the governments of
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
and
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
due to the economic importance of the product in countries without ready access to wood fibers. The work was presented before representatives of 100 industrial interests and officials from 15 countries.


Nanocellulose

Nanocellulose Nanocellulose is a term referring to nano-structured cellulose. This may be either cellulose nanocrystal (CNC or NCC), cellulose nanofibers (CNF) also called nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC), or bacterial nanocellulose, which refers to nano-struc ...
, a higher-value product, can be produced from bagasse through various conventional and novel processes.


Health impact

Workplace exposure to dust from the processing of bagasse can cause
bagassosis Bagassosis, an interstitial lung disease, is a type of hypersensitivity pneumonitis attributed to exposure to moldy molasses or bagasse dust. Signs and symptoms Some symptoms and signs of Bagassosis include breathlessness, cough, haemoptysis, sli ...
, a subtype of the chronic lung condition
pulmonary fibrosis Pulmonary fibrosis is a condition in which the lungs become scarred over time. Symptoms include shortness of breath, a dry cough, feeling tired, weight loss, and nail clubbing. Complications may include pulmonary hypertension, respiratory failu ...
.


Human consumption

Sugarcane fiber, a variety of processed bagasse, is sometimes added to human food. It is a soluble fiber that can help promote intestinal regularity. One animal study suggests that sugarcane fiber combined with a high-fat diet may help control
type 2 diabetes Type 2 diabetes, formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is a form of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin. Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urination, ...
. It is a good source of lignoceric and cerotic acids. In the
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Guangxi (; ; alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam ( ...
in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, bagasse is sometimes used to smoke bacon and sausages.


See also

*
Biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (E ...
*
Bioenergy Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms biom ...
* Corn stover


References


Further reading


''The Potential of Bagasse-Based Cogeneration in the US''
Kevin Ho, Columbia University, 2006. {{Authority control Bioenergy Sugar Papermaking Solid fuels Biomass