Dynamic Evaluation of Livestock Feed Supply Chain from the Use of Ethanol Vinasses

Abstract

The sugarcane industry is the economic mainstay of many developing countries, such as Brazil, India, and Thailand. As a result, these countries are well known as world’s top sugar producers. As a by-product of sugar production, molasses is used for animal feed and as a fermentation source in ethanol production. In turn, the production of ethanol from sugarcane molasses generates vinasse, a liquid residue that, if left untreated, can be hazardous to the environment. However, since vinasse is rich in organic materials and minerals, if properly treated, it can have applications in energy generation and soil fertilization. Unfortunately, the viability of using vinasse to produce livestock feed (LF) is not sufficiently explored. To address this gap, in this chapter we propose the conceptual design of the vinasse-based LF supply chain. To this end, we rely on System Dynamics (SD) to identify the key variables of the chain and assess how vinasse can be efficiently used to produce animal feed.