Greenhouses for CO2 sequestration from atmosphere

Abstract

Escalating threat of global warming and the steady growth in world population require the development of transformative greenhouse gas control technologies and food production systems of high energy efficiency, small environmental footprint and low cost. To control the global temperature rise below 2 °C by 2050, global greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut by more than 80%. At the same time, our land needs to be utilized more efficiently and productively in order to produce enough food to feed projected 9 billion people with less available land area for food production in 2050. We propose to develop a modern urban vertical farming system, i.e. greenhouses equipped with a Carbon Enrichment for Plant Stimulation (CEPS) system, to enhance land use efficiency and thus increase food productivity and, at the same time, to sequestrate CO2 from ambient air. The deployment of such a CEPS system will have a potential to remove more than 500 million tonnes CO2 from air annually, and increase the current food productivity by more than 15 times than the open field operation. The deployment of the CEPS technology will also promote locally produced food, benefiting urban economical development and job creation.