Turning bamboo waste into biochar opens up a new pathway for carbon credits

Bamboo King Vina, located in Linh Son commune, Thanh Hoa province, is transforming bamboo by-products and waste into biochar, opening a new direction for forestry waste treatment, sustainable agriculture development, and access to the carbon credit market.

Each day, Bamboo King Vina (BKV), located in the Bai Bui industrial cluster, processes around 1,500 tons of bamboo and wood, generating 800–900 tons of waste, including branches, leaves, roots, bamboo scraps, and sawdust. Previously, this biomass waste was mainly burned or left to decompose outdoors, resulting in the emission of CO₂, CH₄, and particulate matter into the environment.

Since mid-2024, BKV has launched the “Bamboo King Vina Biochar” project, investing in six high-tech pyrolysis production lines. This technology burns biomass under anaerobic conditions at temperatures of 600 – 800°C, locking carbon into the resulting biochar. The gases produced during pyrolysis are captured and reused to fuel the system, significantly reducing air emissions.

The project is registered under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) by Verra (USA), with ID number 5108, and a crediting period from June 2024 to May 2031. The company’s current design capacity reaches 47,520 tons of biochar per year.

According to estimates, the plant will reduce and remove approximately 112,000 tons of CO₂ equivalent annually, equivalent to nearly 784,000 tons over the first seven years. This emission reduction will be internationally verified and converted into verified carbon units (VCUs), which are owned by the company. These are considered carbon removal credits, currently offered at prices ranging from USD 100 to 300 per credit.

Bamboo and Dendrocalamus (luong) at the Bamboo King Vina factory

The biochar derived from bamboo waste can be directly applied to soil or used indirectly through livestock farming, composting, or sludge treatment. This carbon-rich material helps improve soil structure and water retention, reduces the need for chemical fertilizers, and limits nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions—a potent greenhouse gas mainly produced during the transformation of nitrogen in soil from the use of nitrogen fertilizers and organic manure. N₂O has a global warming potential hundreds of times greater than CO₂. Additionally, the carbon stored in biochar can remain in the soil for hundreds of years, effectively turning farmland into a natural carbon sink.

Beyond its environmental significance, the project also brings economic benefits to farmers by utilizing bamboo waste while returning biochar to the fields, thereby increasing crop yields and reducing production costs.

Mr. Do Quoc Thai, Chairman of Bamboo King Vina, stated that the company aims to expand to 15 factories nationwide by attracting investment, supplying biochar production equipment, and providing consultancy on carbon credit registration processes.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Vietnam currently has nearly 1.6 million hectares of bamboo plantations across various provinces. Thanh Hoa is one of the largest bamboo- and luong-growing areas in the country, supplying tens of millions of bamboo culms to the market annually.

Source: News from Saigon Economic Times Online