Generally, bamboo is planted at wider spacing of 5m × 5m resulting in 200 plants per acre and harvest starts during the 6th year. We have developed closer planting of bamboo with the spacing of 3m × 1.2m resulting in 1000 plants per acre and harvest starts during the 3rd year onwards. This High-Density Plantation is developed specifically for Energy Plantation to reduce the time to harvest and improve the quality of Feedstock by the way of Reduced Ash Content.

Under intensive cultivation of Beema Bamboo with the population of 1000 plants per acre, the Biomass yield starts from 3rd year at 30 tons per acre and increase to 35 tons in the next year and stabilizes at 40 tons from 5th year onwards. In exceptional cases, under better management of cultivation, with the blessing of natural climatic conditions, annual yield can reach as much as 65 tons per acre. Regular population density of 200 plants per acre, the Biomass harvest starts from 5th year with the field of 30 tons/acre, increase to 40 and 45 tons in the subsequent years and stabilizes at 50 tons from 8th year onwards.

Due to planting of genetically superior clones and following the precision farming practices, the Biomass yield of Beema Bamboo is so high that area required for energy plantation is reduced to 1/3rd, in other words, Biomass can be obtained from 1 acre of Beema Bamboo Energy Plantation whereas it requires 3 acres of Regular Plantation to provide same quantity of Biomass.

Beema Bamboo has an energy value of 4000Kcal with an ash content of 0.4 to 1% that has a low production cost of th of the pre-dominant energy source - Coal. Beema Bamboo stands 1st when it compared with commonly available Biomass - rice husk (20% ash content) or Conventional Coal (12 - 30% ash content). There is no Sulphur in Beema Bamboo Biomass as compared to coal or furnace oil whereas its energy value is comparable to that of coal.

Under precision farming, high yielding clone of Beema Bamboo hybrid can yield over 40 tons of Biomass annually either from 3rd year to 5th year onwards, depending on the planting density. Energy Plantation based on Beema bamboo is one of the best solutions available today for many Biomass based power projects in the world, both for controlling the cost for biomass and to have assured supply of raw materials which ultimately makes biomass-based power projects viable under current situation.

The harvested bamboo is chipped in the field to a size suitable as per the individual project and drained for a week to 10 days. At the time of harvest bamboo has 40% of moisture and reduces to a level of 12-15% by when bamboo biomass feedstock is good for Power Generation. Under selective harvest the harvested bamboo regrows and is ready for harvest in 1 years’ time. In a very large-scale plantation it is recommended for complete harvest where in all the culms are cut to the ground and it regrows, ready for harvest in 2 years’ time, the annualized yield of bamboo would be 5 - 10 % less in clear cut harvest but advantages where there is a shortage of harvest.

A good cultivated 2,000 acres (800 hectares) of bamboo can produce about 60,000 litres / day, 18 million litres / year on a sustainable way, with no more replanting for next several decades. All parts of Bamboo that are collected from specifically cultivated "Energy Plantation" are pre-processed followed by Enzyme Treatment and Fermented to form the Bio-Ethanol. The process gets completed in a week's time, which results in ethanol, water, undigested biomass and Lignin. By the process of distillation, the ethanol is separated and the undigested biomass along with Lignin is compressed and made free from water, which is used as Feed Stock for Steam Generation that is utilized for co-generation of Electricity and Hot Steam for Pre-processing the bamboo. Bamboo biomass of 4 kg would produce 1 kg. or 1.2 litre of Ethanol.

The present source of Ethanol is from the Molasses of Sugarcane, which is yielding only 500 litres from an acre of sugarcane field while Bamboo cultivated similar to that of Sugarcane, would result in 10,000 litres of Ethanol/ acre/ year. Future research is in progress for increasing the cellulosic content of Bamboo from 65 - 80%.

Agro Gas, a subsidiary of Primove Engineering Pvt. Ltd., Pune has tested Bamboo and established a model of Bio-CNG plant in Pune and functioning for the past 6 months. The technology is developed by Mr.Santhosh Gondlekar after several years of continuous research and hard work. This is the first Bio-CNG gas production and gas dispensing station in India.

Process:

Cultivation of Bamboo under hi-density:

Bamboo is planted under close spacing and harvested from 2 ½ years when it is grown as irrigated crop, with drip irrigation and fertigation. The plantation is established with fast growing thick wall Bamboo species with no thorns, with higher cellulose content. The Bamboo is harvested annually as immature bamboo and utilised for the production of Bio-CNG.

Conversion of Bamboo biomass into CNG:

All parts of Bamboo are collected from specifically grown in “Energy Plantation” and fermented with right combination of micro-organisms and bio-digested for 24 to 36 hours. The process generates bio-gas and biomass slurry.

Bamboo biomass of 8 kg would produce 1 kg. of CNG gas and 4 kg. of dry undigested biomass having Lignin as major component. The gas is scrubbed and cleaned from carbon-di oxide, carbon monoxide and sulphur compounds. The processed biogas is compressed into bio-CNG and filled in dispensable gas cylinders. The Undigested Biomass mass is converted into briquettes/pellets as by-products.