The possible Industrial Symbiosis between the sugar and paper processing industries in South Africa

The possible Industrial Symbiosis between the sugar and paper processing industries.

For many who have read the book 'The Blue Economy' by Gunter Pauli, the industry solutions mentioned make incredible sense.  Many industries are discussed, specifically on how their waste can be used very efficiently in other industries who use it as a process input.  One example that caught my eye was the sugar industry.  The sugar extracted is only 10-15% of the total cane biomass.  This waste called bargasse (90% of plant )  is burnt as waste after sugar is extracted.  At the Transvaal Sugar Board, they use the thousands of tons of bargasse as a source of fuel by burning it to contribute to the electricity required to run the processing plants and mills http://www.tsb.co.za//environment.cfm#.Un9A83Bmim4.  So instead of using coal they use their own waste material and even have an independent power purchase agreement with Eskom to supply electricity to the national grid.  But, in the burning process it is only the lignin that supplies the heat and energy.  The rest which is composed of hemicellulose and cellulose creates massive carbon emissions when burned, because these substances incinerate without contributing useful heat.  Can the bargasse then not be better used in the paper processing industry to make paper products?

The paper industry is currently and historically only using pine and eucalyptus trees as input to the paper making process.  Vast swathes of pine and other tree plantations cover various sections of South Africa and since only the cellulose content of the entire tree is used to make the pulp for paper, the remaining 70-80% of the tree is wasted (what is done with this waste?).  Sugar cane, in terms of fibre, tops the volume of produced by trees in our climate (temperate).  So the logical outcome: should the sugar and paper industries not work together on perhaps using the other's waste?  Both industries are concentrated in the eastern part of South Africa, so transport costs should be minimal.  Worth considering......but with a certain turn around on each industries current business model.

As is put forward in The Blue Economy +TheBlueEconomy,  industry should work like an ecosystem and as everyone knows: in nature nothing is wasted and there is always a cascading of nutrients.  Waste output from industry is a massive problem globally so this is a key priority going forward.  There are many other industries where waste accounts for a huge percentage of the entire process: the beer industry (SAB and use of clay), the coffee industry (99.8% of total biomass is waste).  GreenCape, an NGO in Cape Town, has just acquired software from a UK based company to determine the 'Industrial Symbiosis' between industries.  So this field can expand substantially within the next few years in this country.