[alancalverd]

Just as well that the market gardeners of Essex weren't educated at Stanford, or we'd all starve. One nearby glasshouse actually sells electricity to the grid as a waste product. There are several units with "Danger" labels on the doors - you have to ventilate the glasshouse before it's safe to harvest the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines. I don't think they raise the CO2 level to inhibit growth.

Fortunately, plants are more intelligent than academics (or most humans, come to think of it), and either evolve or migrate to accommodate environmental change.

[paul cotter]

Alancalverd, when I became aware of this practice I was very surprised. I know gas engines are relatively clean but there must be a finite amount of lubricant mist emitted and over time I would be concerned about deposition on the veg. It's a long time since I did any chp work but I seem to remember nox at around 500ppm in the exhaust. Do you know if the exhaust is treated in any way?

[Bored chemist]

Fortunately, plants are more intelligent than academics (or most humans, come to think of it), and either evolve or migrate to accommodate environmental change.

I can imagine triffids migrating, otherwise... not so much.

Just as well that the market gardeners of Essex weren't educated at Stanford, or we'd all starve. One nearby glasshouse actually sells electricity to the grid as a waste product. There are several units with "Danger" labels on the doors - you have to ventilate the glasshouse before it's safe to harvest the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines. I don't think they raise the CO2 level to inhibit growth.

Fortunately, plants are more intelligent than academics (or most humans, come to think of it), and either evolve or migrate to accommodate environmental change.

https://dilbert.com/strip/2018-01-25

[Bored chemist]

Alancalverd, when I became aware of this practice I was very surprised. I know gas engines are relatively clean but there must be a finite amount of lubricant mist emitted and over time I would be concerned about deposition on the veg. It's a long time since I did any chp work but I seem to remember nox at around 500ppm in the exhaust. Do you know if the exhaust is treated in any way?

If this
https://www.shentongroup.co.uk/blog/low-nox-chp-engines-explained/
is anything to go by, they use urea and a catalytic convertor to remove NOx.

But I wonder how much would be removed simply by cooling the exhaust fumes and letting the water condense.

[paul cotter]

The chp plants I worked on were all lean burn( jenbacher make ) and as far as I can remember the lowest nox achievable was ~500ppm. The exhaust was not treated in any way. Corrosive liquids did build up in the exhaust system and drain plugs were placed in suitable low positions to deal with this.

[alancalverd]

I can imagine triffids migrating, otherwise... not so much.

You should live in East Anglia. Happens all the time. Major driving hazard: rampaging wurzels.

[Petrochemicals (OP)]

Is it not specifically the heat used to grow tomatoes.

https://resource.co/article/UK/SITA_UK_incinerator_heat_grow_tomatoes-2491

Co2, due to its miniscule percentage in the atmosphere is usually produced by the method you describe, beer, preservatives etc, maybe wasted on plants if they have enough.

https://www.marketplace.org/2022/10/11/fizzling-out-a-shortage-of-carbon-dioxide-hits-u-k-food-and-drink-industry/amp/

[alancalverd]

Heat probably helps too, but the warning on the door is about carbon dioxide, not temperature.

It's odd that the food and drink industry was short of CO2. When I was a lad, breweries produced huge quantities of the stuff. Enough, indeed, to make that cold fizzy urine that Americans call beer.

[wolfekeeper]

I mean, maybe raising CO2 in specific circumstances, where the plant has optimum heat, light, water, ammonia, potash etc. etc. might work, but the average plant on Earth doesn't have all that, so it's going to be limited by whatever is in shortest supply. Given the climate changes that are ongoing, that's probably going to be water in more and more of cases.

[alancalverd]

the average plant on Earth doesn't have all that,

Whatever sequestered all that carbon into coal and oil seems to have managed without human intervention, whether cow dung or Haber-Bosch fixation, and must have started with a much higher CO2 concentration than we have now.

[Petrochemicals (OP)]

the average plant on Earth doesn't have all that,

Whatever sequestered all that carbon into coal and oil seems to have managed without human intervention, whether cow dung or Haber-Bosch fixation, and must have started with a much higher CO2 concentration than we have now.

Whare did the oxygen come from? If all plant life vanished, how long before the free  oxygen disappears as well.

[Petrochemicals (OP)]

Heat probably helps too, but the warning on the door is about carbon dioxide, not temperature.

It's odd that the food and drink industry was short of CO2. When I was a lad, breweries produced huge quantities of the stuff. Enough, indeed, to make that cold fizzy urine that Americans call beer.

I believe co2 is a hazardous gas in breweries, people have died due to asphyxiation.