The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on Tuesday said bamboo pellets and charcoal briquettes, both locally-sourced, are promising biomass energy sources.

Developed by the DOST- Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI), both materials’ clean and sustainable source could help ease the country’s reliance on imported fuels, the DOST said in a news release.

“By converting abundant biomass materials into efficient fuels, we offer a renewable, locally sourced substitute that can help with our country’s needs,” DOST Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. was quoted as saying.

Bamboo pellets are a densified form of bamboo designed for optimum combustion. These pellets have higher energy density than other biomass materials such as wood chips and agricultural residues. Materials with high energy density contain and give off more energy.

Additionally, bamboo pellets are lightweight and easy to transport. It is cylindrical in shape, with a diameter of about 8-12mm and a length of 20-30mm.

According to DOST-FPRDI researcher Anniver Ryan Lapuz, one cubic meter of these pellets can generate as much as 12.15 gigajoules (GJ), and one GJ is approximately 277 kilowatt hours.

“In coal-fired power plants, bamboo pellets can be used as a co-firing fuel. For biomass-based industries, they can serve as a supplementary fuel source to conventional materials such as bagasse and rice hull. At the household level, these pellets could be used for cooking just like your regular charcoal— only, it is denser and gives higher heating value than the ordinary ‘uling’ (charcoal),” said Lapuz.

Meanwhile, FPRDI Director Rico Cabangon said bamboo is an ideal and reliable biomass energy source because it is abundant and fast-growing.

Some bamboo species, he said, can grow more than one meter per day or about 4 cm. per hour.

Bamboo can also thrive almost anywhere — in poor soil conditions, grasslands, denuded lands and watersheds, and in both tropical and temperate regions, he added.

“By turning a fast-growing local resource like bamboo into a fuel alternative, we are helping build a future that is less dependent on finite resources and more grounded in sustainable materials,” Cabangon said.

A charcoal briquette, on the other hand, is a compacted mass of fuel material made from a mix of charcoal fines and binder, and molded under pressure.

Compared to ordinary charcoal, these briquettes are less messy and easier to handle because they are compact and uniform in size. They also burn slowly, give more intense heat per unit volume, and are almost smokeless when burning.

The FPRDI has manual and hydraulic charcoal briquetting technologies ready for adoption.

These technologies also open opportunities for small businesses and rural communities to engage in biomass fuel production, it said. (PNA)