Small-Scale CO2 Capture Plumps Up Vink's Peppers
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 01.16.08
In Scandinavia it's almost a given that the shiny, gorgeous, and expensive red and yellow peppers (for some reason there are few green ones) at the grocery store are imported from Holland, the land of the never-ending greenhouse. So peppers aren't the best local, sustainable mid-winter choice, and in fact they aren't even available at the all-organic eco-store this season. But sometimes a potato, a parsnip or a beet just can't cut it.
Hothouses' biggest cost is usually the energy it takes to keep them hot, so growers naturally look for ways to cut that growing bill. Grower-entrepreneur Jaan Vion in the quaintly-named Dutch town of Beetgum is switching his boiler from natural gas to a 25% more efficient wood-fired CHP, and he's the first in Holland to spring to use a system that captures the CO2 generated from the exhaust and after "scrubbing" pipes it back into the greenhouse as a stimulant to help the peppers grow. Vion's is no rinky-dink project - the boiler is 5 MW in capacity and uses 2.6 tons(!) of wood per hour - to support 8 hectares of pepper production. A tomato grower in Sweden and a Canadian greenhouse will soon get the same system. Via PrivataAffarer (Swedish)
anything on what "scrubbing" means in this case?
This may be an improvement, but not that impressive.
If this guy has 8 hectares, he should be making enough money to build better "hothouses" that dont need this kind of imput.
A design along the lines of a "Solviva" ( see book ) should be much lower imput if any.
Many cheaper alternative building techniques could be used to reduce build costs.
This may be an improvement, but not that impressive.
If this guy has 8 hectares, he should be making enough money to build better "hothouses" that dont need this kind of imput.
A design along the lines of a "Solviva" ( see book ) should be much lower imput if any.
Many cheaper alternative building techniques could be used to reduce build costs.
I googled this name + co2 capture and found nothing... I would want to know, what is the technique. The Swedish site is not available in English.
Interesting article - Do they have to use wood? Is there any way to use perhaps paper that cannot be easily recycled or possibly cardboard?
I don't know the answer - perhaps another reader does.
Thanks,
Eric
Hi, all:
There is no info on the system in English right now, that I could dig up. There's an 'unveiling' next week and perhaps that will yield some news reports in English. You might be able to google Vink Sion AB and see the invite in English and a short description of the tech pieces of the system.
My mention of scrubbing was just my interpretation of the removal and cleaning of the CO2 from the exhaust stream.
Let me first say that the Dutch greenhouse owners are always looking to keep costs down and reduce CO2. For example they store the heat in the summer below the greenhouses and reuse it in the winter.
One of the biggest problems when talking about CO2 is the fact that people forget important facts. For example if you look at the CO2 that is released by the production of the vegies in The Netherlands you have at least do (greenhouse CO2+transport CO2) against CO2 if the vegies would come from countries where these vegies could grow naturally. I think this involves big ships or airplanes.. Do the math.
Same problem can be found in things like measuring the CO2 of airplanes. I never read airplane CO2 minus other transportation CO2.
And one more example, datacenter CO2. Just think of all the paper, courier services we save using computers...
I've always thought that we should put greenhouses on top of big box stores. In the winter, the heat that leaks through the roof can be reused in the greenhouse. All of the produce won't need to be trucked to market because it will already be at the store!