Imagine that a cool bamboo-like grass can be used to make green energy. Scientists at Landuo Biotech, a business in Wuhan, have created one such plant recently. They name it “super giant reed” (超级芦竹).

Since 2012, the Landuo team have collected over 1,000 wild giant reeds for experiments. As a result, more than 40 varieties of super giant reed have been “born”. In the Landuo’s factory, hundreds of young reeds are grown in glass bottles. Fully grown, super giant reeds are cut and put in a special place without O₂. The Landuo team heat them up to make natural gas, which can then be used for energy.

Thanks to the scientists’ efforts, super giant reed has a biomass (生物量) three times that of wild giant reed. A kilogram of super giant reed also has 4,000 to 4,500 kilocalories (千卡) of energy. So, super giant reed is a great choice for taking the place of fossil fuels (化石燃料).

What’s more, growing super giant reed helps a lot. Planting 13,000 hectares of it can produce 0.45 to 1.5 million tons of fuel a year. 40 million hectares of super giant reed can be used instead of 2.2 billion (1 billion=1,000 million) tons of coal and can cut CO₂ emissions (排放) by 4 billion tons in China every year.

Super giant reed is also well-suited for growing on some land like beaches, wetlands and salty lands. Once a reed is planted, it can be cut and used many times during the next 15 to 20 years. By the end of 2024, over 3,300 hectares of super giant reed had been planted across 53 areas in China.

At present, China is developing this new energy source—super giant reed and we hope that it can help to make our planet cleaner and cleaner.