Bamboo: the mean green carbon fixing machine

Event details

Speaker Bio

David Trujillo (MSc PhD CEng) has been researching, teaching and promoting bio-based materials (timber, bamboo) for over 20 years. He has authored more than 25 bamboo-related publications. David has led the development of two ISO standards for bamboo, which are now British Standards (BS ISO 22157 and BS ISO 19624). He is actively participating in the revision of ISO 22156 (Structural Design), and Chapter G of Colombia’s building code. His goal is to enable bamboo engineering as a key mitigation and adaptation response to the climate emergency.

Topic

Bamboo has some truly impressive characteristics. It achieves the strength of oak within 3-5 years from the moment it emerges from the ground. In terms of strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight it can compete with steel, yet at a fraction of the carbon emissions (even before considering carbon sequestration). This makes bamboo stems a very appealing structural product. However, the root system fixes significantly more carbon and also provides numerous other environmental services (water cycle regulation, recuperation of degraded soils, etc). This talk presents my work on bamboo to date, and outlines possible avenues of collaboration to explore a range of environmental services this giant grass can provide.

Enquiries

CAWROffice@coventry.ac.uk

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