Thursday, July 18, 2019

Using plants & phytoplankton to absorb CO2

Some of you may or may not know that I am currently a software test engineer and specifically in the healthcare industry. More and more I have been contemplating where my career is taking me and what impact it has on humankind, and more specifically the environment / ecology, nature and the world.

With the current political climate and the heightened awareness of the extremely urgent need to stop (or at least reduce) our destruction to the environment, it is evident that climate change may be irreversible if drastic actions are not taken now. Change takes time, political will and legislation, etc takes time, but the time to act is really now.

In general, I'd think it is a 2 pronged approach. One would definitely be the reduction and complete conversion of burning fossil fuels to renewable energy as much as possible. The second would be to reclaim green spaces and also to take care of the ocean and waters to help oxygen producing phytoplankton thrive.

I read this recent UK's Independent article and it has intrigued me and also reinforced what I have been thinking of recently of employing plants and phytoplankton to help naturally and quickly absorb and lock away as much CO2 as possible. If I am not mistaken, this article from Wikipedia does mention that nearly 50% of the O2 is produced by these microorganisms. This makes sense as 70% of the world is covered by the ocean, making it a very large surface of abundance for the phytoplankton to thrive.

The other 50% is by plants, and to me, what makes most sense is something that grows fast, most efficient at producing O2, is hardy and also useful for consumption if possible.

Another thing to consider is the concrete jungle in cities and house roofs. For ever acre and hectare we consume permanently for buildings, we need to reload them with as much greens as possible. I envision a symbiosis between these buildings & residential homes: be it indoor plants else exterior wall with planters and unused rooftops / plant growing roofs would make the most sense to help "re-green" and reclaim these spaces to grow plants. I'd think that they are a good and natural insulator as a roof if properly constructed.

Phytoplankton that produces oxygen is a bit more elusive, but an interesting read on algae bloom and the advantages and disadvantages are covered here: https://articles.extension.org/pages/45651/if-algae-produce-oxygen-in-a-pond-how-can-having-too-much-algae-cause-an-oxygen-depletion

I scoured around online for resources and this is what I found that may make most sense:

Fastest growing:

Most O2 efficient:
Round the clock O2 production:
Utility / ability to be useful plants: