Applied and Environmental Soil Science

Review Article

Filter Cake and Vinasse as Fertilizers Contributing to Conservation Agriculture

Table 1

Estimates of the potential contribution of byproducts produced by the sugar-alcohol agroindustry to the annual recycling of mineral elements in agriculture (adapted from [33]).


Residues	Nutrients			Volume of residues	Returning nutrients
Residues	N	P₂O₅	K₂O	Volume of residues	N	P₂O₅	K₂O
	(% in dry residue)				(t yr⁻¹)

Filter cake¹	1.40	1.94	0.39	2.34 million t dry cake yr⁻¹ (Mt dwt)	32800	45400	9130
Straw²	0.46	0.11	0.57	34.5 million t dry straw yr⁻¹	158700	37950	196650

	(g m⁻³ vinasse)
Vinasse³	375	60	2.035	270 billion L yr⁻¹	101250	16200	549450
Total	—	—	—	—	292750	99550	755230

Supposing that the cultivated area in Brazil is 6.9 million hectares and 475 million tons of cane sugar are harvested, of which 223 million tons are utilized for sugar production generating 35 kg of filter cake ton⁻¹ of crushed cane; filter cake with 70% moisture content. Generation of 5 t ha⁻¹ of dry straw, considering that 100% of the sugar cane cultured area in Brazil is not burnt. Alcohol production: 20.8 billion liters; vinasse generation: 13 L L⁻¹ of produced alcohol.