7/18

 Good evening everyone! Today began with another early morning, and we hopped on the bus a little after 7 AM. The bus ride to the sugar cane processing facility and ethanol plant was about three hours long. When we arrived, we had some coffee and listened to a presentation from one of the engineers of the plant. We got into our PPE and got back on the bus to see the plant.

Ethanol Production System

They have a cool operation. They harvest sugar cane and separate it into two streams: one for sugar production and one for ethanol. From there, we hopped on the bus again for about another hour before stopping for some lunch. I went to the same buffet chain that I went to at the mall on Paulista Avenue. After lunch, we got back on the bus and went to one of the biomass sources for ComBio. They are essentially a tree plantation. I forgot the name of the tree, but it is a monoculture and pretty massive. We did a quick bus tour and they showed us how they process the wood into chips (for biomass) and into different measurements of wood for distribution.

Lots of woodchips

After this, we went to the Mogi Guacu unit. Here, ComBio operates the boilers for a client's energy production. Here, they burn woodchips and excess sugarcane waste material. Gilberto, one of our main POCs with ComBio, took us on a tour of the plant. He gave us a step-by-step breakdown of the operation.

Top of the biomass boiler overlooking the client's production. 

Stored biomass

From there, we headed back to the hostel. I got some dinner and began doing the blogs and the homework. A much-needed quiet night tonight. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s update!

Sunset at the biomass plant