Sugarcane biomass is one of the energy sources most readily available in Brazil, mainly due to residues such as trash (tops, dry and green leaves). Large scale use of these residues still faces high recovery costs related to gathering, baling, transportation, chopping and residue utilization technology. An analysis was done of the mechanical principles involved in the packing processes. A model was defined to estimate the cost of trash recovery, simulating the field capacity, oil consumption, depreciation, repair and maintenance as well as labor required for the field and transport operations. Six recovery systems were studied both from the technical and economical points of view. The results showed that handling billets and trash together, described as "Integral harvesting", has the lowest cost for trash recovery, both for short and long distances, followed by bulk handling of chopped trash, the round bale, the cotton bale and finally the pellet and briquette systems.
biomass; harvesting; baling; cane residues
