Elaboration of ruminant supplements with byproducts and residues of bio-ethanol produced on farm settings

To establish, validate and evaluate the technical and economic efficiency of a decentralized approach for production of hydrated and anhydrous ethanol (95% and 96% concentration, respectively) a low-cost, small-scale processing plant was built, with a processing capacity of approximately 1,000 liters/day. The plant is easy-to-manage and operate with different feedstock crops (cassava, sweet potato, beet, sugar cane and sweet sorghum) thus avoiding the dependency on just one crop. By transforming crops into a liquid biomass and bio-ethanol, which could be use in power generation (electric or mechanical) or can be sold as biofuel (anhydrous ethanol), farmers can increase their income. The approach proposed also includes a sustainable, added-value management of co-products (leaf, stover, etc) and residues generated (bagasse, vinasse) in the process, using them for the elaboration of products can be used as animal feed and/or fertilizer. Per ton of substrate are produced 30 liter of ethanol, 270 liter of vinasse and 700 kg of bagasse. Current approaches to biofuels production are a source of contamination for soils and waters because of the great volumes of effluents generated (8-10 liters/liter bio-ethanol produced) and the very high costs of currently available technologies for managing effluents. In this approaches, the organic content of the effluents is flocculated and agglomerated through the use of a biopolymer-based technology. This organic load is used to prepare multinutritional blocks (10-30%CP; 65-70% TDN) and supplements (17-40% CP; 60-65% TDN) for ruminants. The use of supplements in ruminants has allowed weights gains in calves and steers between 350 and 550 g/day. The remaining waters are cleaner and non-pollutant. Producing biofuels in farms has a great potential to generate added-value, stimulating social inclusion programs and socioeconomic development of family agriculture.