Towards more ecological sources of production

CO2 enrichment

Carbon dioxide is a key factor in photosynthesis, so injecting it into a greenhouse leads to an increase in yields. The recovery of CO2 from the combustion of natural gas has allowed greenhouse growers to benefit from this product at very low cost. However, the shift to alternative energies is pushing the industry to think about other sources such as recovery from biogas and biomass or captured directly from the air.

Ariane GRISEY , CTIFL

Landry ROSSDEUTSCH , CTIFL

Serge LE QUILLEC , CTIFL

Published 01/09/2022

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

Current situation concerning acreage using CO2 enrichment

Currently, supplemental carbon dioxide (CO2) in the greenhouse comes from two main sources: recovery from flue gases after combustion and the injection of pressurized liquefied gas (Photo 1).

The majority of CO2 injection is practiced in heated tomato and cucumber greenhouses, accounting for 89% of greenhouse acreage in 2016 (INFOS-CTIFL No. 333, 2017). 43% of greenhouse tomato and cucumber area used CO2 from the flue gases and liquid CO2, 31% only from the flue gases and 15% only liquid CO2 (Figure 1).

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