Bamboo, the wonder plant in nature, has many uses which include
but not limited to erosion control, watershed protection, soil remediation,
environmental greening and medicinal application. Bamboo is an incredibly sustainable
resource, since it's fast-growing and resilient. Bamboo is actually not a wood,
it's a grass. Unlike a tree, which can take decades to grow to maturity, bamboo
is ready to harvest within 4 to 5 years.
Bamboo is a high-yield renewable natural resource: ply bamboo
is now being used for wall paneling, floor tiles; bamboo pulp for paper making,
briquettes for fuel, raw material for housing construction, and rebar for
reinforced concrete beams. Bamboo is a mystical plant as a symbol of strength,
flexibility, tenacity, endurance, luck and compromise. Throughout Asia, bamboo has been an integral part to religions ceremonies, art, music and daily life
for centuries. Among the earliest historical records, in 2nd century B.C., it was
written on green bamboo strips strung together in a bundle with silk thread.
Instruments made of bamboo create unique resonance.
Bamboo shoots provide nutrition for million of people
worldwide. In Japan, the antioxidant properties of
pulverized bamboo bark prevents bacterial growth and its used a natural food
preservative. Taiwan alone consumes 80,000 tons of bamboo shoots annually
constituting at $50 million industry.
Many Asian countries overall development policy is to make
limited use of natural resources, concentrating on the renewable ones. This
policy recognizes the importance of rural activities, such as agriculture,
forestry and handicrafts production. Bamboo is involved in all of these. The
demand for bamboo is bound to increase over time, particularly for use as
fodder and other multipurpose uses. There is ample scope for greater bamboo
production, especially in the higher areas where communities are widely
dispersed and agriculture is less profitable.
Bamboo fiber and starchy pulp are made from bamboo that grows
widely throughout Asian countries. Starchy pulp is a refined product of bamboo
stems and leaves through a process of hydrolysis-alkalization and multi-phase
bleaching. Chemical fiber factories then process it into bamboo fiber.
Manufacturing process:
There are two ways to process bamboo to make the plant into a textile
substrate: mechanically and chemically.
Mechanical process: The woody parts of the bamboo
plant are crushed and then natural enzymes are used to break the bamboo walls
into a mushy mass so that the natural fibers can be mechanically combed out and
spun into yarn. This is treated as an eco-friendly manufacturing process.
Bamboo fiber product made from this process is sometimes called bamboo linen.
Very little bamboo linen is manufactured for clothing because it is more labor
intensive and costly.
Chemical process: Chemically manufactured bamboo
fiber is a regenerated cellulose fiber similar to rayon or modal. Chemically
manufactured bamboo is sometimes called bamboo rayon because of the many
similarities in the way it is chemically manufactured and similarities in its
feel and hand.
Bamboo fiber is chemically manufactured by cooking the bamboo
leaves and woody shoots in strong chemical solvents such as sodium hydroxide
and carbon disulfide in a process also known as hydrolysis alkalization
combined with multi-phase bleaching. This is basically the same process used to
make rayon from wood or cotton waste by products. The general process for
producing regenerated bamboo fiber using hydrolysis alkalization with
multi-phase bleaching technology is furnished below:
Preparation : Bamboo leaves and the soft, inner pith
from the hard bamboo trunk are extracted and crushed;
Steeping : The crushed bamboo cellulose is soaked in a
solution of 15% to 20% sodium hydroxide at a temperature between 20 degrees C
to 25 degrees C for one to three hours to form alkali cellulose.
Pressing: The bamboo alkali cellulose is then squeezed
mechanically to remove excess sodium hydroxide solution.
Shreeding: The alkali cellulose is mechanically shredded
to increase surface area and make the cellulose easier to process.
