|  By
Arnaldo- Arnie - Coro
Hello
friends, you are welcomed to Breakthrough,
Radio Havana Cuba's science, technology
and the environment update. I am Arnaldo,
Arnie, Coro, RHC's science editor, it is
my pleasure to inform you about recent developments
in the use of sugar cane by products to
generate electricity here in Cuba.
ELECTRICAL
ENERGY PRODUCTION BY THE SUGAR INDUSTRY,
continues to attract the attention of scientists,
engineers and environmentalists around the
world.
The
discussions are centered around the many
available options and possibilities for
the sugar cane industry to produce more
electricity that is very properly described
as value-added energy.
In
other words, BIOMASS, that is a surplus,
a leftover after producing sugar and molasses,
is used more and more as fuel to generate
steam for thermoelectric power plants, and
this is already increasing the production
of electricity here in Cuba, as demonstrated
during the past several sugar harvest seasons,
despite the negative effects of the recent
hurricanes.
According
to experts who have presented research papers
on this topic, in the case of Cuba, BIOMASS
will make an important contribution to the
nation's energy budget by means of a much
more efficient use of the bagass and dried
leaves that are both left overs after the
sugar cane
is crushed.
Both
the bagass and the leaves are compacted
with special machinery and then and burned
in new non-conventional highly efficient
steam generators, which can convert much
more of the fuel's energy into heat.
As
a matter of fact, here in Cuba there is
an ongoing project for a full size BIOMASS
power plant that is now in progress. According
to its design parameters, the new power
plant should provide up to 40 megawatts
of electricity during peak load hours to
the western part of the island, saving the
nation substantial quantities of imported
oil or burning the heavy crude oil that
is extracted here.
Bagass,
what is left after crushing the sugar cane,
is already the industry's own prime energy
source, but the typical Cuban sugar mill
still uses low pressure steam generators
that are inefficient and waste a lot of
the available energy that may be extracted
from the bagass as it burns.
Havana
Province's Hector Molina Sugar Mill will
be the test bed for all the new technologies.
Their engineers will run sometime in the
future the first highly efficient electricity
generating plant that uses
biomass as its fuel.
Biomass
is renewable energy -- each and every yearly
crop will provide the power plant with all
the fuel it requires to power the sugar
mill, and a surplus amount of electricity
that will be sold to the national power
company.
BIOMASS
will provide the industry with an additional
source of income, making the production
of raw brown sugar much more viable from
an economic point of view.
Synchronizing
the sugar mill's electrical generator with
the national electrical system has required
the installation of sophisticated telecommunications
facilities, the training of the operating
personnel
and redesigning the electricity generating
grid to make the best possible use of the
much lower cost fuel.
BIOMASS
electricity is now a reality in Cuba, and
during the next several years more highly
efficient high pressure steam generators
and steam turbines will be installed in
order to benefit as much as possible from
what someone at the meeting called, very
properly GREEN ELECTRICITY...
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