Sampling of gaseous and particulate fine pollutants release to the combustion of sugar cane bagasse

• Grant number: 13/03892-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2013
• End date: September 30, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Transport Phenomena
• Principal Investigator: Maria Angélica Martins Costa
• Grantee: Fernanda Fernandez Marcondes
• Host Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental de Itapeva. Itapeva , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Brazilian ethanol production based on raw cane sugar is seen as the most efficient biofuel technology today. Because of this, encouraging the replacement of fossil fuels by biomass is increasing. However, agricultural fires are a source of particulates, carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including toxic and carcinogenic components, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), but impacts this environmental process has not been properly analyzed. The project aims to quantify gas emissions, concentration, and size distribution of particulate matter less than 2.5 ¼m, shortly diameter range evaluated in scientific studies, absent from Brazilian laws but described as high pollutant damage to human health because it impairs the respiratory system. The monitoring of emissions from the combustion of cane sugar is important for making decisions on scientific and political order that Brazil is the target of numerous criticisms related to the harmful effects of forest fires and agriculture. Environmental concern should go beyond the issues of fires in the field and also the use of various types of biomass used as fuel, emissions, and their control due to industrial level. (AU)