Sugarcane Biomass, Alternative Energy for the Sustainability of Thai Society

Abstract

Sugarcane is an economic crop of Thailand that is linked to the sugar industry and other downstream industries. In the cutting of fresh sugarcane using a cutter or machine, there will be scraps such as sugarcane stems, sugarcane shoots, and sugarcane leaves that are left in the plot. Most of them will not be put to any use. Some sugarcane farmers burn sugarcane shoots and leaves after harvesting and before preparing the soil affecting the environment, causing the greenhouse effect, smog, and PM 2.5 dust, destroying people's health. The leaves and shoots of sugarcane have high potential and can be developed into fertilizers, containers, and biomass fuel which must go through a management process, starting from storage, collection, transportation, and processing.

               Biomass is therefore classified as an important type of renewable energy (RE) by using biomass as energy. There are 2 sources: waste materials from agriculture and agricultural industrial processing. To be used as energy fuel, biomass created in the area after harvesting or from the base of trees such as sugarcane leaves is used as fuel to produce biomass electricity. It will be able to produce over 400 megawatts of electricity to sell into the system at competitive prices. If the government purchases more electricity from biomass, it will be able to reduce the import of fossil fuels from abroad, create energy security, help reduce environmental impacts from the cost-effective use of agricultural raw materials and solve the problem of air pollution from sugarcane burning in a sustainable way. For promoting the proper management of biomass from sugarcane by farmers. There are some guidelines as follows; 1) promoting the integration and linking of community enterprise networks to manage sugarcane biomass appropriate to the area, 2) set policies and strategies for sugarcane biomass management, 3) support and promote sustainable and environmentally friendly sugarcane biomass management through setting measures, creating projects and campaigns to create incentives for sugarcane farmers and 4) integrating cooperation from all sectors by defining roles for all sectors to participate in management to create concrete and continuous sustainable practices.