Green Fuel uses world-class harvesting techniques

At Green Fuel, we utilize 8000 Series CASE Mechanical Harvesters from Brazil. CASE, our partners lead the world in cane-harvesting technology and dependability, promoting excellent cane quality and ultra-clean samples.

The mechanisation of sugarcane harvesting in Brazil has been shown to decrease environmental impacts and waste, while also increasing efficiency, energy cogeneration and thus sector profits and national energy security.  Mechanisation eliminates the need for burning, speeding up the collection process, eliminating harmful emissions from smoke, reducing crop wastage and thus increasing productivity in terms of energy generation.

Green Cane Harvesting

We harvest our sugarcane green, without burning it first.  This is far better for the environment in terms of smoke pollution and it leaves a thick trash blanket on the ground which acts as a mulch, saving up to 40% of water consumption due to reduced evaporation and runoff.  This also increases the organic carbon content of the soil and is beneficial for soil fertility, as well as reducing the risk of early shoot borer.

Our harvesters work 24 hours per day during the harvesting season, cutting the cane and throwing it into our specially designed rigid in-field truck that hauls straight to the factory, preventing double-handling and contamination.  Our average harvest to crush time is 2 hours before taking it to the mill where the cane is processed.  Each harvester has the capacity to harvest up to 1000tonnes of sugarcane per day.

All harvesters are operated on the same RTK GPS system as the mechanical planter so as not to cross any lines or stools and do damage. We are currently converting all of the in-field trucks to a GPS Auto-Steer system.

We use best-practice and the latest technology to reduce losses caused by green-cane harvesting.  We monitor this closely and continue to improve our yields.