In a zone adjoining “Pablo Noriega” sugar mill in
the province of Havana, Cuba, three experimental
piles of about 140 bagasse bales in each pile were
erected with the following coding characteristics:
i. Wet raw bagasse “IN” (~ 50% M.C.*)
ii. Wet depithed bagasse “DH” (~ 50% M.C.)
iii. Pre-dried depithed bagasse “PR” (~ 25% M.C.)
In the case of “DH” bagasse, the depithing
operation was carried out in horizontal rotor type
depithers, “Horkels”. In the case of “PR” bagasse
the depithing was carried out in vertical rotor type
depithers, “S.M. Caribe”, and further pre-dried in
flash type pneumatic dryers. The scheme of the
experimental plan is shown in Fig.1.
In each case, the bagasse was sampled and
characterized before baling, the moisture content
was determined, sampled and characterized
before baling too, and the moisture content was
determined every 15 minutes. The initial
characterization included particle size
(granulometry) and morphological analysis