2.5.1 Biofuel Production

Bamboo is observed to be more productive as compared to many biofuel producing vegetable plants. Bamboo is suitable for fuel production because it has low alkali index and ash content. Moreover it has low heating value than many of the woody biomass feed stocks. Further research is required on bamboo fibers for commercial­ization of biofuel (Scurlock et al. 2000). Pyrolysis of bamboo in the presence of high temperature steam and inert atmosphere containing nitrogen produces a product. The product when analyzed indicates exploitation of derived char as activated carbon precursor or solid fuel for gasification. The composition of liquid fraction reveals it to be a biofuel (Kantarelis et al. 2010). The treatment of bamboo fibers with cold sodium hydroxide/urea disrupts the recalcitrance of bamboo fibers effectively and leads to generation of highly reactive cellulosic material. This material, on enzy­matic hydrolysis is converted into bio-ethanol. Bamboo fiber derived bio-energy products include charcoal, biofuel, pyrolysis, firewood, gasification, briquettes, pel­lets, and biomass (Li et al. 2010). Bamboo hemi-cellulosic fibers having 2.4 % hemi — cellulose content have been extracted and pulped. The pulp produce can be used to produce biofuel and bio-ethanol after further modification (Vena et al. 2010).