While we know that bamboo can provide us with everything from bamboo bed linens to bamboo t shirts, one company is taking the plant further and hoping to create clean energy with the use of a bamboo plant. Clenergen Corporation recently announced its partnership with Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp to design and install biomass power plants at selected sites in the Phillipines.  Rio Tuba is a company committed to renewable energy products which will have a positive impact on the environment, remediate lands that have been mined and that will create jobs for both rural and urban communities in the regions where it operates. A mining company runs 24/7 and the addition of a renewable energy source is a huge step towards “greener” operations. While the majority of the Philippine islands rely upon leased diesel generators for electricity, Clenergen believes that commercial enterprises using diesel-generated power have limited control over their energy costs and the sustainability of the power. Rising costs and rolling black-outs are quite common in these communities as demand continues to rise.

This is where bamboo steps up! The Philippines offers an ideal climate to cultivate Beema Bamboo for both gasification and combustion steam biomass power plants. Bamboo itself is a natural species on most of the islands and the Beema Bamboo itself is a special strain of bamboo that has naturally increased its growth by up to 8 times resulting in a density 5 times greater than that of any other bamboo species. Beema Bamboo has the potential as an energy crop of yielding up to 60 tons per acre per annul after the third year and will never require replanting.

Commenting on the project, Mark Quinn, Executive Chairman of Clenergen said “supplying biomass-generated power to mining operations. Mining operations such as Rio Tuba is an integral part of the company’s strategy two of the most challenging targets for mining companies, especially in the emerging markets, where the gap between the supply and demand for electricity continues to widen. In addition our strategy of local cultivation of the feedstock could aid in the remediation of mining sites and reforestation of marginal lands and providing a long term solution for meeting the environmental standards set by the Government of the Philippines”.

For anyone curious as to how energy is created from using bamboo, this goes far beyond a simple campfire in the woods. n a conventional biomass-fired combustion steam turbine, wood biomass is burned in a boiler to produce pressurized steam. The steam is expanded in a fully condensed turbine to generate electricity. These combustion methods will produce boiler efficiencies ranging from 65 to 75% with net plant efficiencies from 20 to 25%. This process is carbon-free because the resulting CO2 has previously been captured by the very plants being combusted. The amount of carbon dioxide emitted during the burning process is typically 90% less than when burning fossil fuel. Wood fuel contains minimal amounts of sulfur and heavy metals and it leaves no threat of acid rain pollution.

While you may disagree with many methods of mining, it’s encouraging to see that one company is trying to reduce its impact on the environment by turning mined lands into bamboo plantations and harvesting a renewable energy source. And once again, the use of bamboo will provide a livelihood for people living in impoverished countries.

For more on how bamboo is changing the world, visit Green Earth’s News section on Bamboo’s Worldwide Impact.

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Tagged as: bamboo, beema bamboo, biomass fuel, clean energy, Clenergen, Philippines, sustainable