Green Chimney - Localized Carbon Sequestration in closed Environment

Abstract

Global climate is changing rapidly and unequivocally due to greenhouse gases (GHG) emission. According to IPCC, the largest contribution to the increase in GHG level is fossil combustion emission (56.6%). Although there are many ways to minimize GHG level in the atmosphere, Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) has been widely considered as an effective way to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuel emission. One of the CCS options is the use of biological means through forest carbon sink that is only able to absorb CO2 at atmospheric level. Even though there has been a lot of research carried out on the use of vegetation to reduce CO2, there are limited numbers of study conducted on the use of vegetation to reduce elevated CO2. Moreover, most of the previous studies have been conducted by using terrestrial plants grown in soil medium. Since reducing elevated CO2 by using hydroponic system have not been investigated extensively and comprehensively, it is essential to investigate the response of specific plants once they are exposed to very high concentration of CO2. In this research, a new technology -called Green Chimney, is proposed to reduce CO2 emission that is produced from a generator. The flue gas from a portable electric generator that contained CO2 is channeled into transparent glass tanks with 50,000ppm (5% vol) as a starting level. Meanwhile specimen plants are put in tanks that are tightly sealed to create a controlled environment. The experiments are conducted in two different ways ¿ in the laboratory environment and on the roof top, using mung bean (Vigna Radiata) as a plant model with leaf areas covering 500cm2, 1000cm2, and 2000cm2. The results showed that by using a ¿stepping down¿ approach, mung bean is able to absorb the most amount of CO2 within 24 hours if subjected to 8,000ppm as starting point. Further, mung bean with 1000cm2 leaf area that has been exposed to 8,000ppm in the roof top experiment showed that no significant difference of R2 compared to water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) with the same leaf area. Moreover, the results showed no statistically significant differences between mung bean and water hyacinth were tested using the t-test at a level of significant of 5% (a=0.05). This research also observed the response of mung bean with 2000cm2 leaf area when subjected to 8,000ppm of CO2. The results showed that within an average time of 3hours, mung bean specimens are able to reduce CO2 level from 8,000ppm to ambient level (380ppm).