30 NOV 2025
I thank the International Bamboo and Rattan Organization(INBAR) for organising a series of online seminars towards mainstreaming bamboo construction.
It's undeniable that the advancements in the construction industry have made affordable housing possible for billions of people. Cement is the single most important material that has made this happen.
The key ingredients of cement are widely available and generally well distributed. Strategically nations are not dependent on imports and can source all the raw materials required to manufacture it domestically.
Environmentally though the construction industry through its use of cement and steel is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses and also one of the biggest consumers of energy. But much of it is offsetted by the fact that constructions last for several decades and maybe centuries so short term increased energy consumption is going to lead to lesser use in the future.
The search for new materials in construction is not driven by any inherent flaws in cement or steel but to make our buildings cheaper and more sustainable.
Bamboo presents a novel alternative material. With a high strength to weight ratio bamboo could work as a load bearing element in homes and buildings. Indeed bamboo has been used successfully in both temporary constructions such as beach shacks to domes , arches and multistory buildings in Asian nations.
Bamboo offers one major advantage over timber. It can be cultivated much more rapidly and requires little upfront cost. Bamboo has been known to grow even in soils that are deemed to be unfit for agriculture.
Further bamboo is being positioned as an alternative to plastic through INBAR’s own Global development initiative.
However there are several challenges with bamboo.
First as a substitute to steel bamboo doesn't work well with cement. Second, if bamboo is used as a construction material on its own, joining techniques are more artisanal rather than being reproducible so it limits its use. If people do not know how to work with bamboo, not many buildings or houses are going to be made.
Then there are other challenges regarding the variability of bamboo. Being a natural product every bamboo clum has its own quirks. Different diameters, height making it difficult to build a process around it.
Bamboo laminated sheets get around this problem by first stripping the bamboo,gluing them together and then hot pressing it. Sustainability remains an issue here as the adhesives are mainly petroleum based.
Bamboo fibers are generally considered stronger than wood fibers. This is because they are longer and more aligned at the microlevel. While the current process of engineering bamboo involves making thick plies out of bamboo strips it is also possible to fibrillate bamboo and then embed it in a matrix to make sheets much like GFRP.
Bamboo or any other lignocellulose material provides strong fibers but what's missing is glue. Current engineered wood products use formaldehyde based adhesives but they are petrochemical products and often require hot pressing. Intense research is being done to produce nanocellulose based adhesives on scale ,and there has been success, with plants already demonstrating tonne scale production. The next step is to produce nanocellulose using greener chemicals like hydrogen peroxide.
Another problem is treatment costs to prevent microbial attack. These can make construction more complex operationally. Development of effective green hydrophobic coatings are going to help a lot here. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons offer a solution and what's more they can be created using bio based precursors which open up an avenue for research.
Effective adhesives can already create panels but to replace plastic, cellulose materials will have to overcome another hurdle which is compatibility with molding techniques.
Nanocellulose production will always be a bit pricey yet if it's used strategically with cheaper bulk cellulose fibers (i.e as a matrix) it's possible to mold cellulose fibers.
It wasn't that long ago that wooden ships sailed the high seas. Today steel dominates the ship building industry. Synthetic fibers have shown that it is possible to build structural components of vessels and nanocellulose reinforced lignocellulose fibers could prove to be a good substitute to conventional GFRPs.
Wood is often viewed as a hard to work material due to its anisotropic nature, moisture sensitivity and yet wood has been used in mission critical applications like legendary De Havilland planes in WW2. Engineered wood offers far greater applications. Recently japan even deployed a satellite made of lignocellulose.
Other applications for cellulose like binder for inks, transparent sheets for optical applications as a potential glass replacement, in packaging ,in ultrawhite coatings , nanocellulose for structural colors and as substrates for electronics both traditional and flexible are being explored though they have received much less attention than structural applications.
INBAR has done incredible work in promoting bamboo for sustainability but cellulose research must take priority globally. Every year trillions of tonnes of cellulose is produced exceeding the combined production of all synthetic materials. Not only is cellulose the most important material biologically but it could also be a key enabler of synthetic materials at the cutting edge —carbon fibers,nano carbon,polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and more.
We often think of bio based materials as mere replacements for our existing products. A greener alternative but nothing more. But it's clear to even the most casual observer that they could unlock opportunities that are impossible with traditional materials. One such prospect is that of producing materials on scale. With the right balance of strength,availability and cost it could allow us to build products that are not just greener but also more durable. It could decentralise industries & create new businesses that are both highly technological and yet cheap to establish and operate.
REFERENCES
1 Topping off of the first multi-story engineered bamboo building
https://www.zju.edu.cn/english/2024/0130/c19573a2876560/page.psp
2. Bamboo's solution to plastic pollution
https://www.inbar.int/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2024-08-01-BAMBOOS-SOLUTION-TO-PLASTIC-POLLUTION-%25E5%2586%258D%25E4%25BF%25AE%25E6%2594%25B94.pdf
Akshat Jiwan Sharma
Strategy Consultant--Innovation/ Materials science/International relations/Telecommunications/Digital Transformation/Partnerships
Mobile/whatsapp:+919654119771
email:getellobed@gmail.com
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