Bamboo is the world's fastest growing woody plant and some species can grow up to a foot a day if the right conditions were met, therefore it can be a sustainable raw material resource for energy demand. In Asia, bamboo is mainly used for scaffolding and about 50,000 tonnes of bamboo waste is generated annually in Hong Kong. To utilise the growing bamboo waste, pyrolysis which is a promising technology for tackling waste disposal can be employed. This paper proposes the pyrolysis mechanism and develops a mathematical model for bamboo pyrolysis process using the parameters generated from the TGA/DTA analysis. This model helps to understand the bamboo pyrolysis better and it was then used to study the effects of different operating parameters on bamboo pyrolysis. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.