Bagasse

Bagasse (/bəˈɡæs/ bə-GAS) is the fibrous matter that remains after sugarcane or sorghum stalks are crushed to extract their juice. It is dry pulpy residue left after the extraction of juice from sugar cane. Bagasse is used as a biofuel and in the manufacture of pulp and building materials.

"Agave bagasse" is a similar material that consists of the tissue of the blue agave after extraction of the sap.

Bagasse can also be very useful to generate electricity. Dry bagasse is burnt to produce steam. The steam is used to rotate turbines to produce power.

For every 10 tonnes of sugarcane crushed, a sugar factory produces nearly three tonnes of wet bagasse. Since bagasse is a by-product of the cane sugar industry, the quantity of production in each country is in line with the quantity of sugarcane produced.

The high moisture content of bagasse, typically 40–50 percent, is detrimental to its use as a fuel. In general, bagasse is stored prior to further processing. For electricity production, it is stored under moist conditions, and the mild exothermic process that results from the degradation of residual sugars dries the bagasse pile slightly. For paper and pulp production, it is normally stored wet in order to assist in removal of the short pith fibres, which impede the paper making process, as well as to remove any remaining sugar.

A typical chemical analysis of washed and dried bagasse might show:

Bagasse is a heterogeneous material containing around 30-40 percent of "pith" fibre, which is derived from the core of the plant and is mainly parenchyma material, and "bast", "rind", or "stem" fibre, which makes up the balance and is largely derived from sclerenchyma material. These properties make bagasse particularly problematic for paper manufacture and have been the subject of a large body of literature.

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