FAQ
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FAQ’s
Why invest in bamboo plantations?
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The production of sustainable raw materials is the great business of this century.
Considering the Green Deal, in the coming years industrial production will be progressively converted to materials that can guarantee the production of products with a negative CO2 rate.
Historically, European countries have been completely dependent on foreign suppliers of minerals, metals and oil.
In the new scenario of sustainable materials, there are instead all the conditions for Italy and in general for the countries of Southern Europe, to become producers of raw materials, placing themselves in a position of autonomy.
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How can you join in the Prosperity Bamboo’s industrial program?
The programme is mainly aimed at industries that consider investing in the production of sustainable raw material in Italy and its transformation for the conversion of fossil-based industrial production a strategic investment. Agricultural entrepreneurs can participate in the supply chain as producers of raw materials, since production buying contracts are already proposed. Other actors participate in the chain only as capital investors on production, research and development or industrialization chains.
Where can you grow bamboo?
Among the more than 1,200 existing species, in Europe it is possible to cultivate those apt to a temperate climate. In order to establish the suitability of a soil, our Team carries out geological, chemical-physical and bioelectronic analyses in advance. Bad preliminary elements can be too cold winter temperatures, lack of water for irrigation, possible flooding of the soil.
What can you do with bamboo?
Lignin and plant fibres have numerous processing methods and thousands of possible applications. The most common uses are the production of cellulose – for paper and packaging, textiles – and food, cosmetics, and animal feed. The research and development of technologies, allow us to state, in many cases, that the materials derived from bamboo, properly processed, are destined to progressively replace what is currently produced with plastics, minerals and metals. It is therefore a raw material that is suitable to many different industrial sectors, e.g. automotive and construction. Mowing and processing waste can be used for biomass.
What are the production times?
The giant bamboo plantation needs four to five years to start producing, and then another five years of development to reach full maturity. The plantation will continue to produce new culms in a continuous cycle every spring for a period ranging from 80 to 100 years on average. For this reason it is easy to compare a bamboo plantation to a mine or an oil well: continuous cycle production of oxygen, food and sustainable raw material.
What are the production volumes?
The culms of a fully developed plant can reach over 20 metres in height and 13 cm in diameter. One hectare of bamboo, when fully operational, produces at least 40 tons every year. The actual yield depends on the quality of the soil, the climate and the expertise with which the planting is carried out. Production can be oriented to obtain mainly shoots, culms or biomass.
Is bamboo a weed?
It is a colonizing plant that propagates only through an underground rhizome that crawls to a depth of about 30/40 cm. The disciplinary method of cultivation of Prosperity Bamboo provides the techniques to easily implement the containment of the forest within a predefined land.
Why produce sustainable matter with bamboo and not with trees?
In the coming years we will need millions of tonnes of sustainable raw material for the progressive conversion of polluting industrial production. Where will we get it? Trees, given their very long production times, will not be able to satisfy this need, and furthermore they must be protected. For example, when a pine tree is cut down it takes 30 years to get another one, or 80 years for an oak. Bamboo is a giant grass that, planted just once, produces dozens of tons of material per hectare, every year, for about a century.
How many crops are there in Italy?
With over two thousand hectares, Italy is the European nation with the largest number of cultivations. Not all these plants, created since 2015, have come into production, due to several mistakes made by the pioneers of the early years, when little or nothing was known about cultivation methods. Plants planted at the wrong time or in an unsuitable soil, incorrect irrigation practices and cultivation management have compromised the development of the plants. For this reason, our team has defined a disciplinary method of cultivation that allows to obtain adequate productive yields.
What is the Prosperity Bamboo’s industrial program?
The industrial program includes:
- Cultivation facilities established and conducted according to a registered disciplinary method
- Research and development on materials and products
- Transformation and industrialization
What supply chains are developing in Europe?
Here are the main industries at European level:
- Nanofibers
- Composites
- Construction
- Food
- Textile industry
- Cellulose and packaging
- Automotive and marine industries
- Bioenergy
- Fodder
- Cosmetics and beauty
What is the profitability of bamboo?
Quantity and quality: giant bamboo guarantees dozen of tons of material per hectare every year; a material that has formidable characteristics of tensile strength but at the same time is flexible and it is apt to thousands of possible uses.
The Green Deal dictate the progressive conversion of fossil-based production – and the consequent need for large quantities of sustainable raw materials – and the industrial world has well understood that innovation is now represented by being able to continue to produce everything we need but with a negative CO2 impact.
The investment in a well-managed high-density cultivation plant reaches the break-even point between the eighth and ninth year, producing an annual revenue at full capacity that – depending on the use of the production and valued at current market prices – is estimated at between 20 thousand and 40 thousand euros per hectare. In short, a bamboo plantation is a natural heritage that produces oxygen, food and sustainable raw material for a hundred years. That is exactly what humanity need to live. For this reason there can be no doubts about the economic return on investments made in this direction.
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