Carbon fixation is when carbon dioxide is converted to organic compounds. Plants do a lot of the carbon fixation on Earth, by taking carbon dioxide from the air. As anyone who’s cared for plants knows, they also need some water and some light. You might also know that they give off oxygen.
They do this by photosynthesis. They’re basically taking the C out of CO2 and then giving off O2. This carbon (the C) gets converted to carbohydrates, which are basically sugars.
Imagine how useful large quantities of pure CO2 might be ... if you did have a widespread industrial-scale use for CO2 today, where would you obtain it in SIZE?
ReplyDeleteNow imagine growing hemp in geodesic greenhouses with CO2 fortified atmosphere ... or algae in floating ocean based 'greenhouses' ... realizing that, to a point, the growth rate of such prolific biological photosynthesizers increases more or less linearly with concentration of CO2, all other things being equal.
Soon, humans will discover how valuable CO2 is -- and what a waste it is to vent it into the atmosphere in the first place. And I have only mentioned the photosynthesis connection ... heck, give me enough CO2 and calcium and I can make concrete in size too ...
If you need a whole mess of CO2 go to any gas liquefication plant. They compress and refrigerate the air to make liquid nitrogen, oxygen, and argon, and that requires removing all the CO2 first since it jams up the machinery, so you get tons of it before you get any of the stuff you want. The problem with CO2 capture schemes is that it takes energy to capture it from exhaust streams, and the reason it's in exhaust streams is to produce energy from turning gas or oil into CO2, so capturing it all largely negates the energy production systems our society is based on.
ReplyDeleteAir is what, less than 0.4% CO2? I am talking real size.
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