Learnings from the 2018 ISSCT Co-products workshop held in Brazil

In August 2018, the ISSCT Workshop on sugarcane co-products was held at the Brazilian Bioethanol Science and Technology Laboratory (CTBE/CNPEM) in Campinas, Brazil. The theme of the workshop was ‘Full use of sugarcane, residues and wastes – maximizing efficiency and profits’. This paper reports on various aspects and learnings of the workshop. Some papers covered global topics, but the main focus was on the optimal use of resources, including trash recovery and ethanol production from biomass (second-generation or 2G ethanol). The Brazil industry and international agencies are in the midst of a major R&D project (US$70 million) to investigate the recovery and use of cane trash for value adding. The purpose of the project (called SUCRE) is to establish the technical and financial feasibility to enable the sugar industry to progress to cane-trash recovery for increased renewable energy production. Several progress reports on trash recovery for the SUCRE project were presented. The site visit and presentation on trash recovery at Ferrari Mill are reported, including field and transport activities and the demonstration plant for bale storage, unbaling and trash cleaning and use in cogeneration facility at the factory. It is apparent that trash recovery is becoming increasingly important to the future of the Brazilian industry. Second-generation ethanol production has commenced at full scale at two plants in Brazil, one of which was visited. The initial teething problems with these plants are being worked through and the prospects are good. Key words Co-products, 2G ethanol, bagasse, trash, Brazil