What is the Best Bamboo for Making Charcoal

I've been reading a lot on bamboo these last few days and am interested in growing bamboo to make charcoal. What is the best bamboo species for this? Would I also be able to make furniture with that same bamboo?

I would appreciate any answer that you could provide.

Comments

Stéphane Schröder

Bamboo charcoal can be made from any woody bamboo species as it is often produced from waste materials (branches, roots, imperfect culms). Personally I think it is better to chose the bamboo species according to your furniture needs and make charcoal as a by-product, because furniture will give a higher financial return than charcoal (especially for smaller plantation projects).

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Albert

Thanks. Can you also help me with plans on how to build a kiln to make charcoal? Dimensions and a bit of process info. I have looked on the net but i'm concerned most of those might not be the right way of doing things. If you look at some of those designs they seem a little way out.

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Stéphane Schröder

Yes, there is a very good pdf presentation from the NMBA available on our website about making bamboo charcoal and kilns.

Attached also a video where you can see the production process of bamboo charcoal and bamboo gasification.

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Keith

This is something I would recommend to investors as the world scene is changing rapidly. Renewable energy produced from bamboo is a very sustainable venture to benefit all, however, because of politics these seem very hard to implement. Nevertheless, the concept is very good.

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Muyideen Badru

I have always known that bamboo being a renewable resource could help a great deal in poverty alleviation in my country Nigeria, but I found it very difficult to get the necessary funding from my Ministry to promote the utilization of this versatile plant that is readily available in most of the ecological zones of the country while I was in public service.

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Ami

Can bamboo charcoal also be made from recycled bamboo or bamboo salvaged from deconstruction of existing built forms (construction waste) or does it have to be freshly harvested bamboo?