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Saltwater Water Lilies

Grow plants, freeze the world.
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Seed the oceans with genetically engineered floating plants that grow, bloom, die & sink, carrying the carbon accumulated through their growth to the seabed.

They can be selectively bred instead of engineered, doesn't matter which.

They don't have to be water lilies.

Skewed, Sep 23 2019

The Last Time the Globe Warmed & How it Might Have Cooled https://www.youtube...watch?v=ldLBoErAhz4
@ 8:10 On the Tape [Skewed, Sep 23 2019]

Seagrasses https://blog.nature...ghting-superpowers/
Seagrasses improve water quality [Frankx, Sep 24 2019]

Ocean seeding for carbon sequestration https://en.wikipedi.../Iron_fertilization
Iron in this case. But others too. [Frankx, Sep 24 2019]


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       We'll need highly voracious fast breeding sea snails to eradicate the water lilies once we've removed enough carbon.
Skewed, Sep 23 2019
  

       Snail eating frogs to get rid of the snails when they've done their job.
Skewed, Sep 23 2019
  

       We can eat the frog eating otters ourselves of course.   

       The fur will be an added bonus if we miscalculate.
Skewed, Sep 23 2019
  

       Add a gene for mercury sequestration (there are several); this will help reduce mercury levels in seawater and will also help the things sink.
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 23 2019
  

       How much carbon do jellyfish blooms sequester ?   

       Can jellyfish be converted to oil ... ?   

       If they can sequester mercury, could they grab lead instead ?   

       Could they produce oil with built-in tetraethyl lead ?
8th of 7, Sep 23 2019
  

       Jellyfish are, alas, largely water and lacking in substance, making them an unpromising feedstock for oil production. In that respect they resemble politicians.
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 23 2019
  

       Seagrasses are interesting for this. They're not seaweeds, they're actually flowering plants.   

       Apparently around 20 billion tonnes of carbon is stored in seagrass beds globally, with potential to sequester very much more.   

       On top of that, they remove water-borne pathogens, improving water quality. [link]
Frankx, Sep 24 2019
  

       //Seed the oceans with genetically engineered floating plants//   

       There are plenty of things in the ocean that grow, photosynthesize and lock up carbon given the chance, they already do. Corals are particularly adept, they take CO2 and use it to make their carbonate skeletons which end up being rock. Sadly, they're limited by availability of inorganics such as nitrate, phosphate, iron etc. That's why all the life in the ocean is right up against land, it's shallow enough for sunlight penetration and the required minerals get washed off the land in rivers.   

       //Snail eating frogs to get rid of the snails//   

       There are snail-eating snails which is something of an elegant feedback loop.   

       //gene for mercury sequestration//   

       related in any way to brassicas? My brother's responsible for a lot of planting and then dumping in the ocean of various poor brassicas in cleaning up industrial sites. Would be useful if the genetics could be transferred to something like bracken.
bs0u0155, Sep 24 2019
  

       //planting and then dumping in the ocean// so, more of a "relocation" than a "cleaning up".   

       Some plants do already sequester mercury, but there are bacteria that do it better using high-affinity proteins. Stick one of those genes in a plant and Bob's your heavy metal.   

       //carbonate skeletons// Good point. Seeding the oceans with fertilisers is probably an efficient way to sequester CO2 - I wonder how much C you sequester per ton of nitrophosphosulphur. I bet it's hundreds to one.
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 24 2019
  

       //There are plenty of things in the ocean that grow//   

       Yes but they're clearly not doing their job, so we need something that grows faster.   

       //all the life in the ocean is right up against land, it's shallow enough for sunlight penetration//   

       Which is why we want something floaty, then it can make use of all the empty bits, over the Mariana Trench would be good, more space to fill up than just dropping stuff elsewhere on the seabed.
Skewed, Sep 24 2019
  

       Algae? I seem to remember a proposal to encourage algal blooms by spreading nutrients on the ocean, to achieve exactly this. Water-lilies would be prettier though. [link]
Frankx, Sep 24 2019
  

       // Could they produce oil with built-in tetraethyl lead ? //   

       What would be the point, when fractional distillation will remove it?
notexactly, Sep 29 2019
  

       Because then you'll have drums of pure TEL which you can re-blend with the light branched-chain fractions to get 110/115 octane AVGAS with no risk if bearing scuff in older powerplants, is why.
8th of 7, Sep 29 2019
  

       Yeah, I did realize you could do that. But you have to add it in afterward either way, whether it's plant-made or synthetic, so is it really practical to have the plants synthesize it? And is it stable in crude oil?
notexactly, Sep 30 2019
  


 

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