This paper investigates the effects of three parameters (reaction temperature, feedstock particle size and nitrogen flow rate) towards the solid (char) yield from the pyrolysis of bamboo. Three-factor, three-level Taguchi's L9 Orthogonal Array was used as the experimental design. The char yield at reaction temperatures of 300-500°C, feedstock particle size of 100-1000 μm, and nitrogen flow rate of 100-300 ml min-1 were investigated. The maximum solid yield was predicted based on signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and was found to be at 300°C reaction temperature, 1000 μm feedstock particle size and 100 ml min-1 of nitrogen flow rate. Confirmation runs were conducted to validate the prediction at corresponding predicted conditions. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)