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A new study by researchers, including those in Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Department of Chemical Engineering, has found that the fastest-growing plant on Earth may offer a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to petroleum-derived transportation fuels.

The researchers, including Michael Timko, the William B. Smith professor of chemical engineering and head of the department, and Timothy Woodard, M.S. '23, Ph.D. '26, have demonstrated that bamboo could serve as a promising raw material for producing sustainable liquid fuels to power vehicles, planes and trains.

The team's study, published in the journal Sustainable Energy & Fuels, finds that bamboo can be turned into fuel at a production cost competitive with conventional petroleum fuels and with substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions.

The study combined laboratory experiments measuring bamboo-to-biocrude conversion efficiency with economic and life-cycle assessment modeling.

"Our study suggests bamboo has a role to play in the future of fuel," says Timko. "I think this research is especially timely and important because fuel prices are high and the transportation sector produces more greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. than any other. Bamboo would use different land than we are using for food production, so there is no food versus fuel trade-off. Farmers win, consumers win."

Key factors in the study are the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) technology that converts biomass to fuel and the choice of feedstock. Using bamboo for fuel can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in two ways: The process of converting it into biocrude is more efficient than the process for other feedstocks, and bamboo itself captures and stores large amounts of carbon both above and below ground.

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