Promising new technology using leftover forestry wood to extract clean carbon dioxide is expected to benefit commercial greenhouses growers and the environment.
The Kiwi invention would help increase crop yield and reduce emissions at the same time.
New Zealand Gourmet's Roelf Schreuder said the produce wholesaler is currently getting CO2 for their Taupo crops from Taranaki as a waste product, which is brought in through trucks every week and "can be a hassle".
Now, Hot Lime Labs has developed a way of producing clean CO2 on site. The technology uses wood chips warms the plants at night while producing carbon dioxide, which is soaked up by limestone pellets, which acts as a "CO2 sponge," founder and CEO Vlatko Materic said.
“It grabs CO2 and lets all the other components out and then releases CO2 on demand on contact with air."