Alistair Bascom
Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & Technology, University of Guyana, Georgetown, Region 4 (Demerara-Mahica), Guyana.

DOI https://doi.org/10.33889/PMSL.2026.5.1.001

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Abstract

Guyana is undertaking a green energy transition, in which renewable energy sources will replace fossil fuels. Therefore, bioenergy conversion can play a significant role in providing an alternative source of clean energy. Although GuySuCo is currently facing challenges, there is renewed interest in resuscitating it as Guyana’s largest sugarcane cultivator and producer. This paper examines the potential of using the sugarcane yield of GuySuco to produce bioenergy. The researcher does not recommend abandoning sugar production, which GuySuCo has a long history of, but rather transitioning to bioenergy products. First, 25% of the sugarcane harvest can be dedicated to the production of ethanol from the sucrose and maltose of sugarcane juice, and 25% of sugarcane bagasse can be used to generate energy via direct combustion. The cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in the bagasse, once combusted, provide more energy than the ethanol from 25% of the sugarcane yield. This paper will focus on the 2017 and 2022 harvests, in which GuySuCo produced 1,859,037 tonnes and 700,149 tonnes of sugarcane, respectively, as these are the maximum and minimum yields for the 2017 – 2022 period. The Ethanol that GuySoCo can produce based on these years is 2.6143×10^4 tonnes in 2017 and 9.8458×10^3 tonnes in 2022, using only 25% of the sugarcane harvest. The bagasse from the 2017 harvests would be 1.5105×10^5 tonnes from 4.6476×10^5 tonnes of sugarcane producing 5.1084×10^8 MWh of energy. For 25% of the 2022 harvest would correspond to 1.7504×10^5 tonnes of sugarcane leaving 5.6887×10^4 tonnes of bagasse, the direct combustion of this bagasse would produce 1.9239×10^8MWh of energy.

Keywords- Bioenergy, Biofuel, Direct combustion, Energy conversion, Ethanol, GuySuCo, MATLAB, Methane, Sugarcane & Sugarcane juice.

Citation

Bascom, A. (2026). The Bioenergy Potential of Guyana’s Sugarcane Yield: An Alternative Use of the Sugarcane Harvest for GuySuCo. Prabha Materials Science Letters, (1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.33889/PMSL.2026.5.1.001.