Tew's Life on the Bayou - a retrospective view

It has been nearly three years since I began this blog.  This is my 191st entry in 35 months, meaning that, from the beginning, I have averaged a little over five blogs a month (≈1/wk).  My output has gone down some from year one.  My goal this year and beyond is to level off at about one entry per week. With my anemic start this year, I'm going to have to step it up a bit, just to meet this goal.

One question that I have thought about (and I'm sure I'm not alone as a blogger in asking this), "Now that Facebook has become such a universal phenomenon, what role does a blog serve that social networking doesn't presently serve?"  To me, this is a valid question, but I think there is an obvious answer.  And it has to do with the intended permanence of each entry.  Facebook is a place for spontaneous expression of feelings and thoughts (perhaps like a fleeting telephone conversation), whereas, a blog entry is generally much more thought out (like a carefully drafted letter to a friend you haven't written to in some time).

I believe my blogs have inevitably given some insight into my life and interests.  This may be largely beneficial only to my own posterity, but that is as it should be.  Occasionally, it has been self instructive.  For example, I was taken aback by revisiting my 5 Jan 2009, "50 things I would like to do" entry.  I quickly realized that, even if I only accomplished 1/10 of what is on this list, I would be doing well.

It's interesting to me that my work-related blog entries have come in handy on several occasions.  For example, the freeze we had a year ago was rather harsh, and now there is some evidence that the severe winter we had one year ago may have had a greater adverse impact on USDA-bred sugarcane varieties as a whole, than on LSU-bred varieties (that must pass through early selection stages in a more northerly environment).  To illustrate the severity of the freezing conditions a year ago, I have referred back to the graph I put together for the 12 Jan 2010 (Freezing on the Bayou) entry.  Being in the blogosphere, the graph is readily available, even when I am away from my own personal computer.

I anticipate using my blog more for documentation purposes in the future.  Certainly, my previous blog to this one, dated 8 Jan 2011, "Excess sugarcane bagasse -- what to do with it," was done with documentation in mind.  I'm not going to be sitting up in the middle of the night, wondering why I am blogging when I am aware that only a tiny handful of people are going to be reading my blogs anyway.  I know a few faithful followers, probably mostly family, will keep reading my blogs, and I genuinely do appreciate your responses.  Feedback is always welcomed.  I will try to keep my blogs varied, and will likely shift them toward being more family oriented in the future. 

I wish this had been my first blog of the year, but I can't reverse the order now...so we move forward.  If this one seems a bit scatter shot, remember that I am recovering from a pretty severe cold, and my head isn't fully clear yet.

Excess sugarcane bagasse -- what to do with it

Bagasse is the fibrous residue remaining after crushing/shredding sugarcane and washing the sugar out of it.  Bagasse provides the power required to run the sugarcane mills that process the sugar from sugarcane, thus making sugar production from sugarcane one of the most energy efficient operations in the plant crop world.  In Florida and Hawaii, energy derived from burning bagasse not only powers the mills, but is also sold to the public as electricity.  This is referred to as co-generation.  When burned in the mill boilers, the energy derived from one ton of bagasse is roughly equivalent to the energy obtainable from one barrel of oil.  In Louisana, electricity is still too inexpensive for mill owners to make a profit burning the excess bagasse, generating electricity and selling it to the public.

Now that the sugarcane harvest season is over, and mill yards are no longer obscured by standing cane, one is struck by the huge piles of bagasse that build up next to them.  The photo above was taken of the mill yard at Raceland Sugar Co., Raceland, LA, from Hwy 90 (future I-49) overpass over Hwy 1 after most of the cane was harvested, and after the occurrence of a killing freeze on Dec. 15.  Note how the massive bagasse piles obscure the view of the mill.  One needs only to drive next to these piles of bagasse to appreciate just how massive they really are. A list of Louisiana's mills and their locations is found on the website of the American Sugar Cane League. 

In the green fuels debate, there has been much discussion about conversion of fibrous residue from plant products into cellulosic ethanol.  It would seem that, if cellulosic ethanol production or the production of some other fuel, such as butanol, from plant fiber is close to becoming economically viable, a great place to test its potential is in an already existing industry where the fibrous residue is a by-product that has already been gathered into central locations.  One issue facing sugarcane breeders, and ultimately the sugar industry, is whether it is an asset or a liability to the industry to develop and release sugarcane varieties possessing higher fiber levels than the current standard of 11-12%.  Perhaps it is a question that gets answered differently depending on whether we are taking the short-range or the long-range view.