Saturday, November 19, 2011

Why don't we pipe in CO2 from power plants into greenhouses?

Since burning things (like coal and oil) gives off CO2, how hard could it be to pipe that air into a greenhouse by a powerplant and let plants that grow well in high CO2 environments absorb it. It would help reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and then they can also sell flowers on the side or something.

Why don't we pipe in CO2 from power plants into greenhouses?
Burning any product (aka "combustion") produces more than just CO2. It also produces carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon gases, nitrogen oxide (all poisonous to humans). Combustion also produces particulate matter otherwise known as soot. Soot settles on the leaves of the plants, blocking the light needed for photosynthesis, killing the plant. Hydrocarbon gases also kill plants. Hydrocarbons also slowly react with synthetic components of the structure (plastic plumbing, electrical wire insulation, and the clear poly covering - greenhouses aren't made with glass covers anymore). Allowing the greenhouse to fill with CO2, carbon monoxide, and other gases would make it lethal for employees to maintain the plants without breathing air from an outside source.





In my greenhouse and greenhouses I worked in before being a firefighter, we had to have exaughst stacks on the heaters (the sun can only heat so much in the winter) to vent combustion products outside of the greenhouse.
Reply:CO2 is heavier than air and would just fall to the floor. It would have to be continually "stirred up" for it to help the plants.





Working in a CO2 environment would be extremely dangerous to us oxygen breathing folks.
Reply:We already do and we call the greenhouse the earth. If the whole planet can't handle the excess CO2 how would you expect a few acres of inclosed plants to handle it all ???
Reply:Too much CO2 so the greenhouse would be rather huge. Add to it that e.g. from cars it's hard to capture it.





The best thing to do is not to burn oil and coal (esp. coal) at all and stay with nuclear power, do research into nuclear fusion and accelerate that, and try to find really clean renewable systems in addition to the nuclear power.





We also need take care that our alternate systems (e.g. photo voltaic cells) are not polluting in other ways than CO2 by e.g. using GaAs based technology.





Once you have an excess of power that does not pollute you can conver CO2 into hydrocarbons and water makign them harmless till they get burned.





In the mean time we need to make sure e.g. the tropical rain forests aren;t cut down any further, but instead are allowed to increase in size.
Reply:If we're talking of investment, what can the business of the power plant gain from the maintenance of the greenhouse if it is to construct and pay for the cost of the CO2 pipe?





These are all considerations thought of in recycling operations too.


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