Vol: 32 Page: 189

Authors:
Maria Márcia Pereira Sartori
Helenice de Oliveira Florentino

Title:
 Minimalization of the sugarcane harvest biomass transfer cost

Language: English

Keywords:
integer programming
mathematical model
residual biomass
sugarcane

Summary:
The sugarcane is one of the grass family plants most cultivated in the state of Sao Paulo. This culture presents a great variety of species, which are chosen for the planting according to their adaptability to the soil kind, the influence of the spreading of plagues and diseases and the agricultural and sucrose productivity. In Brazil, there is a great concern with the crop system of these culture, because the most common practice is the manual harvest with a pre-burning of the straw, what has been condemned by the competent organs due to the generated pollution; on the other hand the mechanized harvest has the problems of the high cost of the machinery, the impact onto the job market, the professional qualification for the operating of the machinery, the non-adaptation of the current machines to regions with irregular relief, the cleaning soil cost, residue destiny and the increase of plagues which were controlled with the burning. Studies have shown the necessity of change in this system, in a way to make it possible the reduction of the generated pollution by the burning of the sugarcane crop in the pre harvest. One of the implications of this change is the harvest residual biomass destiny.