AVALIAÇÃO DE ALTERNATIVAS DE COLHEITA SOB PERSPECTIVA DE COGERAÇÃO ATRAVÉS DE PROGRAMAÇÃO LINEAR INTEIRA MISTA.

The sugar and alcohol sector has great relevance to Brazil's economy and, also, has been the center of new renewable energy possibilities. Besides ethanol itself, cogeneration is a recent advance which changed rules on production and sales of electricity in the country. The objective of this paper is to propose a master production planning model -- with mixed linear integer mathematical formulation -- considering products and byproducts of a alcohol and sugar factory. Not only production, sales and stocks decision are considered, but also alternatives of harvest methods with different efficiencies of straw, which can be used to cogenerate energy. Results were tested with data of a factory of western São Paulo, showing that it might be interesting to use less efficient methods of harvest to increase global results through byproducts. Preliminary results brought interest of refining data and parameters, having special attention to the decision support tool created. Future works include considering other process variables affected with straw portion on harvest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]