After learning everything we could in the field it is time to learn how that big pile of sugarcane turns into ethanol. ETHANOL BEYOND BORDERS HOW DOES SUGARCANE BECOME ETHANOL? Right from the get-go we had a mission: find the gas station and get the envelope.
NEXT MISSION: GET THE ENVELOPE FROM THE PETROBRAS SERVICE STATION ATTENDANT - Hellooo. . .
- Howdy! Did they leave something with you for us? SÃO JOSÉ DO RIO PRETO - SP, 09:06 a.
m. Can you tell us something about ethanol. .
. - Did they deliver it to you? - No!
- Do you think someone else has it? - Well, maybe they do, I'll ask. .
. - Did someone leave an envelope for them? - Ah!
There it is. . .
that's it. . .
thank you! DAY'S MISSIONS: "There's something new going on guys: CONVINCE A SERVICE ATTENDANT TO COME - "to keep going you must convince WITH THEM TO THE TANABI SUGAR MILL a service station attendant to come - FIND OUT HOW SUGARCANE with you and find out how TURNS INTO ETHANOL. sugarcane turns into ethanol.
" - What's your name, buddy? - Ernesto. - Do you know how ethanol is made?
ERNESTO DOS SANTOS - Service Attendant - I went to a sugar mill once before, but I don't know the inner workings, just. . .
- Today we are going to a sugar mill, wouldn't you like. . .
- And could you come with us? ! !
- If management lets me. . .
- Who's your boss here, so we can ask him. TANABI HAS ROUGHLY 24 THOUSAND INHABITANTS THE CITY IS PART OF THE SÃO JOSÉ DO RIO PRETO REGION The person who received us at the mill was Ceribeli, TANABI SUGAR MILL - 10:12 a. m.
we put the safety equipment on and went to where the scale is, which is where the process starts GUARANI IS PART OF THE INTERNATIONAL TEREOS GROUP PETROBRAS HAS BEEN THE GROUP'S PARTNER SINCE 2010 - Now Débora, the truck that comes from the field is bringing the sugarcane EDUARDO CERIBELI - Corporate Manager of Production Processes and Planning from the farm and it goes through the first stage, which is WEIGHING. - Ceribeli, what is going to happen now, after the weighing? - Well Guilherme, now we are at the CHEMICAL ANALYSIS stage to quantify the amount of sugar THE GROUP HAS SEVEN SUGAR MILLS in the sugarcane.
IN SÃO PAULO AND ONE IN MOZAMBIQUE Then it goes to the FEED TABLE that is the part that receives the sugarcane from the farm. This table directs all of the sugarcane to the sugarcane preparation phase. In the CRUSHING stage, we separate the sugarcane juice from the sugarcane bagasse.
That is the BOILER. That's the place where we are going to collect the sugarcane bagasse that comes from the extraction, from the mill itself, and that is going to feed the boilers, where the sugarcane bagasse will be burned, generating the steam that will run the whole plant. - Finishing the process over there, separating the sugarcane bagasse from the sugarcane juice.
The sugarcane bagasse comes through this pipeline and ends up here, - Exactly. The juice TREATMENT phase is nothing more than heating the juice to a temperature of 105 degrees Celsius, leaving it as pure as possible so that it doesn't take any contaminants to the FERMENTATION phase. In the FERMENTATION phase there will be microorganisms treating the sugar and transforming it into ethanol molecules.
PETROBRAS AND ITS PARTNERS CAN PRODUCE 1. 3 BILLION LITERS OF ETHANOL A YEAR - Is this a microbe? - It's yeast!
- But I can't see anything here. - Are they very small particles? - You can only see them under a microscope.
- Without the yeast, nothing would happen! - No, nothing would happen, because they are the real ethanol players. - The ethanol was already made during fermentation, here it is being purified in the DISTILLATION columns.
-- How many employees does the group have today, producing ethanol from beginning to end? - We have around 200 employees at this plant. - After the distillation process over here, the ethanol comes out ready-made over here!
It's ready; it's the end product that we came after. CONTROL ROOM, 2:05 p. m.
- Besides ethanol, what else is produced at this plant? - Sugarcane bagasse, which we can transform into electrical power. During the juice treatment phase, filter cake is produced, FILTER CAKE AND VINASSE ARE SUBPRODUCTS which are sugarcane impurities OF THE ETHANOL PRODUCTION that go back to the field PROCESS AND ARE USED AS FERTILIZERS, as a type of fertilizer.
CONTRIBUTING TO SUGARCANE DEVELOPMENT During the distillation phase, vinasse is produced, which is also used to fertilize the sugarcane. - We have gone through all these processes here, and what is the last step at the sugar mill? - Now on to loading!
- Now we are near the storage tanks and the LOADING PLATFORM. All we need to know now is our next mission! - I would like to say it was a pleasure having you here and I hope we helped answer any questions you may have had.
Your new destination has been delivered to you, so you can continue on your path, the discovery of green Ethanol. - An envelope for us; we will now find out where we are going tomorrow. - Did you like it Ernesto?
- I loved it! -- It was great! - Did it answer your questions?
- Absolutely. - Let's see what we are doing tomorrow. "Congratulations!
- You learned how Ethanol is produced. Did you get it all down? So, get ready now because it's time to leave for Paulínia.
IN THE NEXT EPISODE: After the SUGAR MILL, we are going to find out HOW DOES ETHANOL GET TO YOU? what route ETHANOL takes to get the station. WATCH THE OTHER EPISODES IN THE SERIES: PETROBRAS.
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