STUDY OF THE GROWTH OF EDIBLE PLANTS GROWN UNDER EXHAUST GAS FROM ONSITE GENERATORS

Abstract

Global warming has been a major problem and many organizations around the world have been putting in effort and funds to curb this problem. Among the many greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide is the biggest contributor of global warming. Instead of preventing and minimizing the production of carbon dioxide, another possible solution would be to remove the carbon dioxide present using carbon sequestration by plants. In this study, a new technology, the Green Chimney is used to remove carbon dioxide via the photosynthesis process of basil plants. Firstly, a test run was conducted to provide an overall run-through of the actual experiment. It allows for the improvement of the experimental procedures and also through the test run, it was observed that the carbon turnover for basil plant is high. Next, four rounds of experiments was conducted, placing plants under CO2 concentration of 700ppm, 1000ppm and 2000ppm. A control plant was kept and grown at ambient CO2 concentration. At the end of the experiments, it was concluded that there were no direct correlation between the CO2 concentration and plant growth. The most ideal CO2 concentration to grow basil plants would be at atmospheric level. The second best alternative would be to grow them under 700ppm or 2000ppm CO2 concentration. Lastly, a fifth and final round of experiment was conducted, where 3-4 pots of plants were grown in the same photobioreactor under 2000ppm CO2 concentration. However, the plants did not grow as well as they did in round 1 to 4.