The strong internal demand and great interest shown by industrialized
countries for ethyl alcohol facilitated competition in Brazil
for the implementation of a substantial number of factories for the
production of alcohol and sugar. The necessity for expansion of this
sector drives the national industry to improve the technologies for
sugar/alcohol and sugar-cane production (new plant varieties, irrigation,
new cutting and harvesting technologies). The estimated
2007/2008 sugar cane harvest (CONAB, 2009) is 629 Mton to produce
sugar (44.6%) and alcohol (55.4%). The volume of fly and bottom
ash that will be produced in this harvest is 3.2 Mton
(1000 kg cane?250 kg bagasse?6 kg ash) (FIESP/CIESP, 2001).