Energy from Sugar

             Energy from Sugar

I have written before about how yeast evolved over millions of years, to consume sugar and to produce alcohol.  Sugar, a readily available source of life-sustaining energy, is produced by many plants around us, and it is consumed by an even larger number of microorganisms.  Yeast evolved the ability to create ethanol from sugar as a survival strategy.  This form of chemical warfare, allows it to sanitize its environment, ridding it of competition, so that it can claim total control over the source of the sugar.

Interestingly, us humans have also taken advantage of sugarcane, which is nature’s largest source of sugar, to engineer a way to obtain energy from it, not only for metabolic purposes, but for many of our everyday industrial and domestic purposes as well, in the form of electric energy!

Bagasse (the sugarcane fiber leftover from the cane juice extraction process) is an excellent source of fuel for furnaces that boil water to produce steam that can, in turn, power milling equipment and electric generators.  Electric generation technology is constantly evolving, becoming more efficient and being adopted by more and more sugarcane mills around the world.

Last month we started a new series (“The Sweet Business of Sugar”) devoted to exploring all aspects of the sugar industry.  May’s issue gave us an overview of the global sugar economy and, starting with this month’s issue, we’ll explore sugar-producing countries individually.

This month’s focus is Guatemala (pages 44 to 57).  It is worth noting that the 10 active sugar mills in the country produced 27 percent of Guatemala’s total energy, and that 91% of the fuel responsible for that energy generation came from bagasse.  Other sources included charcoal and methane from bio digestors (from vinasse/spent wash treatment).  As you can see, sugar has been, and will continue to be, a great source of energy.

To the sweet grass!

Luis Ayala, Editor and Publisher

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