Bamboo for Biomass

Bamboo can be an invasive plant that can be controlled by cutting the main stem at the ground and applying herbicide to the resprouts. This is a demonstration of using traditional timber harvesting equipment to cut and chip bamboo for use as biomass in producing electricity. Using the cut stems for power production cleans up the site and allows the landowner to treat the resprouts more easily.
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[@Harbisondude]

Fascinating!

[@ima4ster]

The equipment operators weren't used to handling it, so this operation wasn't as efficient as it would be with trees, but it looks like it is feasible.

[@JDLeeArt]

Their are a couple of species native to the U.S, and used to be spread everywhere but we annihilated them to raise cattle. I'm For bringing it back and exploiting it.

[@ima4ster]

We tend to see plants as "weeds" until we find a use for them.

[@j5simons]

and what was the cost of running that piece of machinery on diesel in relation to the energy produced by burning the bamboo.

[@ima4ster]

The was a special study to look at the fuel quality of burning bamboo for electricity. I'm not proposing that this be the best way of harvesting it.

[@massachusettsprepper]

That chipper sure did make short work of all that stuff. I know I lived in Florida I had some black bamboo on my property and that was some nasty stuff. Thanks for sharing brother.

[@ima4ster]

The next question is whether it will feed through the biomass plant. Long strands tend to clog up the system by bridging at certain points.

[@ima4ster]

@John Smith I've toured the biomass plant, but I don't think I did a video of it.

[@jimhood1202]

Pay attention to the chipper blades. Bamboo is notoriously tough on them.

[@brianstratton8767]

Nice video & machinery but will stuff that green/wet burn..?

[@FirearmPop]

Cool..

[@ima4ster]

I thought you would enjoy seeing it. Good to see you are still stopping by.

[@MyHollowpoint]

That stuff fascinates me. The bamboo at Avery Island grows about a foot a day I'm told. There's some near here I may plant in the yard. You have to plant it in a metal lined trench and keep an eye on it or it will take over. That's the biggest grove of it I've seen.

[@ima4ster]

I'm just trying to figure out how to make something useful out of it. We need to give back to all the countries that sent stuff here.

[@michaelhughes5933]

It's not worth the risk. It will ruin your property and your life if it gets out.

[@dustyflair]

called MOSO bamboo

[@doctorbambu]

Very impressive operation!!! How did this experiment workout? I have living in China since 2001 and learning a the monetiztion of Bamboo... Unfortunately for the landowners, the bamboo will NOT be removed, but will comeback in a few years The best method in my opinion is manage it and monetize from it May I please ask, what area of SC is this? What is the name of the biomass plant?

[@ima4ster]

This was simply an experiment to see if the ground biomass would work as an alternative in a biomass power plant. The biomass power plant was in Dorchester County, SC. The bamboo contained too much silica for their comfort level. The silica can glass over the walls of the combustion chamber. I was hopeful that harvesting the biomass would allow the landowner to treat the bamboo as it regrew.

[@ima4ster]

by the way, where do you live in China? I traveled to China 16 times over the past decade.

[@doctorbambu]

@@ima4ster We current live in the suburbs of th Megaciy of Shenzhen in the ancient town which was once the Dapeng fortress... Over the years we have managed to live in some of the best places here..as part of offering community acupuncture to farmers. Not much bamboo here..but I can always find some. We am finally ponderng returning to the states and in particular VA, NC, SC for purposes of monetizing for some of the "invasive species" there, in particular bambu and mountain yams... I wish the building codes in the States would allow the use of bambu for the building of housing, but maybe you can like in Hawaii build Agricultural structures

[@MistressOP]

that's interesting. interplanting bamboo like that. i wonder if clumping bamboo could work like that in an agroforestry kinda way

[@ima4ster]

I guess this bamboo was planted long ago, but not recently. The bamboo that occurs now in SC, generally was planted around a homestead in previous generations. It occurs in small patches of a 1/2 acre or so. I was just looking for a practical use for it, so it could be harvested along with the timber in a chipping operation. Once harvested, the sprouts can be more easily treated to get rid of it.

[@quincyberman5629]

I am planning to use chipped bamboo for livestock bedding. Our farm already has a lot of bamboo, I will probably need to plant some more to keep up with the bedding needs though. The shoots could be sold to Asian restaurants and markets, we eat our shoots quite often.

[@vanillamidnight3438]

@@quincyberman5629 Depending on the species you can use the leaves for fodder too (the Korean cattle industry and Japanese horse farms use bamboo quite a lot). Just be careful as some species have too much cyanide for livestock - I'd have an expert identify you species before you use it this way. Generally the larger in diameter the bamboo, the safer it is for fodder.

[@romanpanmei2647]

There are 51 species of bamboo found in my state Manipur.

[@ima4ster]

ROMAN PANMEI Is it utilized for anything there?

[@romanpanmei2647]

ima4ster ,yeah but not to greater extent. Some are used for timber, making basket, mat ,hats etc but most of them are eaten as bamboo shoot.Some of them are in the stage of extinction due to jhum cultivation.

[@CuriousEarthMan]

@John Smith he said jhum cultivation. that is 'slash and burn' agriculture. going extinct due to slash and burn.

[@hai101277]

Khai thác kiểu này hao săng quá

[@j5simons]

but yes, there should be massive forests planted of bamboo if biomass burning is the answer . a foot a day growth for some types.

[@ima4ster]

I'm more concerned with coming up with a way to eradicate non-native invasive plantings of bamboo.

[@huckstirred7112]

If only certain varieties produce arsenic and it can be used as biomass for improving poor soil. Wow that wood be awesome

[@ima4ster]

I would recommend to landowners that they use native plants for soil enrichment. We have caused problems by planting non-native invasive plants.

[@huckstirred7112]

@@ima4ster sorghum gets 8 foot tall and is allot thicker and not so woody

[@huckstirred7112]

@@ima4ster excellent advice

[@need100k]

Better to treat the freshly cut bamboo than the resprouts. Must do it immediately though.

[@ima4ster]

We typically let it resprout and then treat it chemically. What do you treat the cut surfaces with?

[@gavinbovell9100]

can you say what type/ models of equipment being used. Planning a similar project

[@ima4ster]

This equipment is standard logging equipment for southern pine forests. It might not be ideal for bamboo harvest. We were testing whether it could be used to handle the bamboo that we encounter routinely. The equipment consisted of a feller-buncher, a Cat skidder, a loader at the deck and the Peterson chipper. The model numbers are printed on the equipment in the video.

[@StitchShifter]

You can make a lot of premium products from bamboo besides a fire. Fabrics, paper, lumber, charcoal water filtration.. medicine.. but whatever...

[@ima4ster]

You sound like my wife....."whatever." :)

[@StitchShifter]

You sound like you prefer to ignore the obvious. I guess its hard to see the forest through the trees.

[@Prosper661]

...and excellent reinforcing in small scale buildings, as long as it's treated before and fully encased after. Works with shotcrete or aircrete. Before basalt rebar will become more popular one can grow own reo in own backyard

[@Dollapfin]

Prosper661 aircrete is a very bad idea, and so is bamboo reinforcement. It doesn’t last because it expands at different rates than concrete. It also absorbs moisture and expands and it concentrates moisture so that when it freezes ice forms. The better solution is to use bamboo to build the building in the first place. It’s entirely possible. Unlike steel, organic products like wood and bamboo have a ratio of compressive to tensile strength that is suitable for use in construction along with exceptional strength to weight ratios. Concrete and steel can’t compete with a properly built organic structure, but we can’t find the proper technique to build them yet.

[@LegendaryBrowser]

how much per ton and where did you sell it .bamboo by the acre video

[@ima4ster]

The chipped bamboo went to a local biomass plant where they generate electricity. I don't recall the price/ton, but it would have been consistent with chipped hog fuel. With harvesting, processing and transportation, I doubt that it was below $18-20/ton.

[@jomckeag4482]

Where would we be without diesel fuel???

[@ima4ster]

Back in the "good old days?" :)

[@vanillamidnight3438]

Have you tried selling it as pulp to textile mills? The cellulose from bamboo is the main seed ingredient of rayon fabric. Might make a higher profit than simply burning it as fuel.

[@ima4ster]

I don't think we have bamboo in enough quantity to use it as a dedicated product like pulp. It only occurs sporadically on our landscape.

[@microppose8004]

@@ima4ster if you have anymore biomass, I'll buy a truck of it. 26 tons.

[@jamesgermany5877]

I think you should look for a market for your bamboo as a building material it is first class world class

[@ima4ster]

I wonder if the quality of the bamboo we grow here in SC is suitable for building materials. It would be interesting to look into though.

[@vanillamidnight3438]

@@ima4ster Depends on the species. Two good ones are moso and guadua. Most of the feral strands in SC are moso, but guadua has also naturalized. Both need to be harvested in the dry season when their sugar content is low. You also want to let the bamboo reduce its sugar content further by leaving cut stalks standing so that the plant uses its stored sugars doing photosynthesis - you need to keep the stems off the soil during this 2-3 week process though or they will root. An easy method is to make a kind of teepee with the cut bamboo. Finally they need to bathe in a boric acid solution for around a day after the sugar content is drained out - this seals the pores of the bamboo and prevents future rot. Treated bamboo can last up to 10 years, untreated will rot in around 2. As a bonus, the leaves are also good fodder depending on the species - some have too much cyanide but moso and guadua leaves should be safe for livestock.

[@user-di6pj9zq2s]

I'm interested in the machine,where can I buy this machine?

[@ima4ster]

Where are you located?

[@Max_Green]

Finde es schade, dass das für Biomasse drauf geht.. besser wären Bambus-Zahnbürsten ;)) Dennoch spannende Aufnahmen.. hab ich so noch nie gesehen.. lg an dich , Maxi

[@ima4ster]

That's interesting. I googled "bamboo toothbrush" and saw some examples. I doubt we have enough bamboo in South Carolina to make this commercially viable though.

[@michaelhughes5933]

If it's profitable, that's not a problem. It will grow to a massive size in less time than it takes to get a first thinning out of planted pine.

[@hai101277]

Dùng cưa máy cắt chất đống, có máy xay xay nhiển bỏ lên xe tải chở về

[@huckstirred7112]

To control bamboo all you have to do is , in spring when the shoots are a foot tall . Run over it with a turning plow

[@ima4ster]

Where I see it occurring, it is in non-tilled areas. We usually just use chemical treatments.

[@xyooj96]

nice, what is the price per metric ton (2205 lbs) for selling this bamboo biomass to the plant?

[@ima4ster]

Bamboo is not a typical feedstock here in the US South, so I imagine they didn't pay anything for access to the bamboo. But it depends on how the contract was written. A lump sum contract probably would only put value on the pine and hardwood trees and nothing on the bamboo. A per ton contract for whatever is cut would cover the bamboo, but at a lower rate. If the landowner isn't paid for the bamboo (and I'm guessing they aren't) then the only cost for the bamboo is the cost of harvesting and transporting it to the mill. That could be $10-15/ton.

[@xyooj96]

@@ima4ster i would buy that for biomass. is here a machine that can do selective harvest of the bamboo trunks, such as a smaller machine which individiual trunks could be selected? i will need these machines for my bamboo farm :)

[@dennisnewsky7890]

Hello! At which country it was filmed?

[@ima4ster]

It was filmed in South Carolina in the U.S..

[@dennisnewsky7890]

@@ima4ster Oh, do you know what the sort of bamboo it is and how fast does it grow there in South Caroline? Because I want to grow it in South America, but I don't know what kind to choose and how fast it will grow!

[@swamiohm5681]

Country of the thieves and pirates.

[@StitchShifter]

How much for a few truckloads of the fat stuff to Florida?

[@ima4ster]

It'll be 90% trucking and 10% chipping cost.

[@StitchShifter]

I don't need mulch I need poles, lengths, culms. Once you grind it up it's worth mulch. Don't worry Ill find a source.

[@kenmccluskey2648]

You have to be very careful when doing this kind of work . If not , it could end up on ballot papers .

[@ima4ster]

This was going straight to the furnace.

[@user-di6pj9zq2s]

I need this machine.

[@ima4ster]

Where would you operate it? Are you serious about purchasing one?

[@user-di6pj9zq2s]

I have a India friend. He need this one to harvest his bamboo. @@ima4ster

[@mlindsay527]

Was it profitable?

[@ima4ster]

This part of it worked fine. The intent was to follow it through burning and get btu value and ash content. Unfortunately, that part of it wasn't completed as far as I know.

[@dustyflair]

invasive?

[@ima4ster]

I consider this non-native bamboo invasive.

[@Gtech484]

Where this machines purchase and haw many price

[@ima4ster]

These are several large equipment dealers here in the US for the different equipment that you see in the video. Which piece of equipment are you interested in?

[@Gtech484]

I am Indian which process purchase

[@ima4ster]

This web site will give you an idea of prices for used equipment. www.machinio.com/forestry-equipment

[@Gtech484]

@@ima4ster have your dealer in india

[@huckstirred7112]

For ground with poor soil it maybe a great addition to the soil. Run over it with a silage cutters . But I am worried about it producing arsenic

[@ima4ster]

The biggest concern about it when burning it for biomass is the silica that can cause glassing in the boiler.

[@christopherescott6787]

It's worth FAR more as flooring.

[@ima4ster]

Landowners are having a hard time selling their bamboo, so I'm guessing that there isn't a strong flooring market here. I'm all for helping landowners get top dollar for their forest products....I just don't hear of anybody buying bamboo for flooring.

[@lewiemcneely9143]

We've got it up here in the hills too, along with it's cousin KUDZU. Seems like if it's not one, it's BOTH!

[@dustyflair]

waaaaaaay to much machine to SELECT harvest bamboo

[@ima4ster]

This was a test to burn the bamboo, see how it fed through the system and measure it's btu output.

[@haowang9515]

will they explode when you burn them?lol

[@ima4ster]

Hoping they will just "combust."

[@patardlelephant9309]

THIS IS TOO BRUTAL POOR BAMBOO

[@ima4ster]

It'll come right back!

[@jimhood1202]

Unless you dig up the rhizomes it will simply come back. Shame you couldn't find a more productive way to use it. As biomass it's just adding to the CO2. As timber or furniture it's sequestering CO2. Any idea which species it is?

[@ima4ster]

If I knew, I've forgotten the species. Landowners want to get rid of it, and I was hoping that it would be a source of fuel for the power plant. The new shoots would be treated after the harvest.

[@deangelopack8405]

With a little bit of carpentry skills you could had made more money off of the bamboo building basic patio furniture and other odds and ends

[@ima4ster]

I'm into wood.....It's plentiful here in the South and it makes beautiful furniture also.

[@whatdoweknow6337]

sehr nützliches Video. Weitere Informationen: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWOyoY2Fl8-lfbc

[@ima4ster]

I checked out the video. Excellent.

[@whatdoweknow6337]

@@ima4ster thank you :)

[@teerayers5679]

WHAT A WASTE OF HARVESTABLE BABOO!!!!!!!

[@ima4ster]

The landowner wanted to get rid of it! It's a non-native invasive here.

[@TheDave570]

Gee, why does it choke out everything here but doesn't choke out everything anywhere else ?? BTW, bamboo IS native to north america !!!! What a waste, typical clear cut loggers !!!!

[@ima4ster]

You're correct that bamboo is native to North America. There are 3 native bamboo species in North America, but this isn't one of them in this video. The 3 native species are in the Arundinaria genus and are smaller plants. They used to be called canebrakes. This is a non-native species that likely came from Asia. It replaces native vegetation and could be considered invasive.