TL;DR:?Black liquor used in leaching bamboo of its high silica and its absorption rate of that silica requires expensive chemical.
Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?
11–20 of 108 posts
Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?
#12The list of uses is missing the best one: clothing! Bamboo fabric is very soft and comfortable, if you haven't tried it yet you should! Downside: it doesn't last as long as cotton, and takes a bit longer to dry after washing.
It's also missing scaffolding. Bamboo is often used to make construction scaffolding in areas where it is abundant.
Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?
#13This article makes no mention of biomass per acre when farmed. As a C4 photosynthesis plant, bamboo presumably grows more biomass per year than other trees. If true, that would seem significant enough to outweigh many of the disadvantages.
Iirc, there’s a bamboo tree that grows very fast and has been considered for carbon sequestration. But the problem is, as with all trees, the carbon isn’t locked away from the atmosphere. It also takes up valuable farm land as they need something more like marshland than drier, more common land.
Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?
#14Relatives that lived in Japan brought back bamboo stuff to the US, and it all cracked within a year or so.
The reason was that bamboo does well in wet climates where the moisture in the air keeps in flexible. (or something like that) But in the US, it's much drier (most places) than in Japan.
This fits with my experience of bamboo furniture over the years as well. It becomes brittle and fragile the older it gets. But oak/pine/maple don't seem to suffer this fate nearly as bad.
Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?
#15The list of uses is missing the best one: clothing! Bamboo fabric is very soft and comfortable, if you haven't tried it yet you should! Downside: it doesn't last as long as cotton, and takes a bit longer to dry after washing.
It's also missing scaffolding. Bamboo is often used to make construction scaffolding in areas where it is abundant.
Also probably missing some uses in the existing categories e.g. pellet fuels (grasses, rice or wheat husks and papers are already pelletised so no reason why bamboo would not be). Though I guess the ash factor issue remains.
Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?
#16Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?
#17The list of uses is missing the best one: clothing! Bamboo fabric is very soft and comfortable, if you haven't tried it yet you should! Downside: it doesn't last as long as cotton, and takes a bit longer to dry after washing.
It's also missing scaffolding. Bamboo is often used to make construction scaffolding in areas where it is abundant.
I can confirm on scaffolding. Having traveled in Asia a fair share, I have come across some interesting creations with bamboo scaffolding. It's incredible to see just how much the material can hold above itself without breaking.
Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?
#18This article makes no mention of biomass per acre when farmed. As a C4 photosynthesis plant, bamboo presumably grows more biomass per year than other trees. If true, that would seem significant enough to outweigh many of the disadvantages.
The impact of shipping bamboo from where it grows to where the lumber is needed might also need be considered for completeness. Now, I don't know how you define biomass but would be inetersting to see numbers. Just from the looks: ok those big bamboo species grow way closer together than oak for instance, but on the other hand an oak tree grows much thicker and the wood per cubic is almost certainly going to be heavier so things might cancel out?
Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?
#19Relatives that lived in Japan brought back bamboo stuff to the US, and it all cracked within a year or so. The reason was that bamboo does well in wet climates where the moisture in the air keeps in flexible. (or something like that) But in the US, it's much drier (most places) than in Japan. This fits with my experience of bamboo furniture over the years as well. It becomes brittle and fragile the older it gets. But…
I don't doubt what you're saying, but I wonder why my bamboo ski poles don't crack. I have lots of them, and they've been used every winter for nearly forty years, from back when I bought them. They're as good as new, still. I bought all the stock of the last shop selling them at the time, in my student town, as I didn't want to use fiber or metal poles in the mountains (can't easily be fixed if they break, while bamboo poles can be fixed if they split, and, with some tape, can even be prevented from breaking in the first place).
Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?
#20The list of uses is missing the best one: clothing! Bamboo fabric is very soft and comfortable, if you haven't tried it yet you should! Downside: it doesn't last as long as cotton, and takes a bit longer to dry after washing.
idk if it is the best use, you need pretty nasty chemicals to make the fibers.