GreenTechnology

Question 1

Dominant landscape of Canada

Answer 1

• Forest

Question 2

How much of the world’s forests does Canada have?

Answer 2

• 9% of worlds forests
• 24% of world’s boreal forests
• Highest forest area per capita

Question 3

How many trees are there in the world?

Answer 3

• Latest estimate: 3.04 trillion

Question 4

What is the current turnover of trees each year?

Answer 4

• 15 billion cut, 5 billion replanted = 10 billion loss/year

Question 5

How much carbon does the forest store? How much goes to other sources?

Answer 5

• Absorb and store approx. 25% of carbon emitted by burning fossil fuel
• Same amount as into the ocean, 50% to the atm

Question 6

How does the forest store carbon?

Answer 6

• Much stored in forest soils
• Carbon is released when trees decompose (from burning, insect infestation)
• Idea: Store carbon by using more wood structures (lumber as storage)

Question 7

Phytoremediation

Answer 7

• Use of plants to decontaminate polluted sites
• plants have extensive roots for absorbing substances
• Can transport material to shoots and store elemental pollutants (mercury, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, zinc)
• Some plants hyper-accumulators
• engineering of fast-growing plants (poplars, grasses)

Question 8

Phytoremediation of chemical pollutants

Answer 8

• PCB, polychlorinated biphenyls
• TCE, trichloroethylene (dry cleaning)
• TNT, trinitrotoluene (dynamite)
• Microbial enzymes that degrade these can be engineered into plants

Question 9

What are the fossils in fossil fuels?

Answer 9

• Dead organisms, mostly plants

- especially coal (oil more from marine sources)

Question 10

What is the world’s most abundant fossil fuel? What period is most of this from in North American reserves?

Answer 10

• Coal
• Canada exports coal
• North American coal mostly from Carboniferous period 300-350mya, known for swamp forests

Question 11

Plant gum in petroleum industry

Answer 11

• Polysaccharide salts of sugar units other than glucose (glucose polysaccharide make starch and cellulose)
• Presence of salts (calcium, magnesium, potassium) makes them interact with water to make gels

Question 12

Human uses of plant gum

Answer 12

• Filler, emulsifier, texturizer
• Found in dairy, lotions, soaps (similar to carageenan)
• For stickiness in glues, dental adhesive, hair gel

Question 13

Guar gum and petroleum industry

Answer 13

• Cyamopsis tetragonobulus, fabaceae, legume family, extracted from seeds
• Fracking: mixture of water, sand and chemicals injected into shale rock layers at high pressure to release natural gas
• Guar gum is best additive to suspend the components which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well

Question 14

Making plastic from plants (vs. from fossil fuels)

Answer 14

• plastics are also polymers of mostly carbon and hydrogen (Think about what is plastic)
• Plant-derived bioplastics: polymers can be produced from the fermentation of sugar and starch by bacteria and fungi
• Plastic polymers can also be made from cellulose and soy protein

Question 15

PET

Answer 15

• Polyethylene terephthalate
• From Brazilian sugarcane
• 50 million tons produced annually from fossil fuel, also high CO2 output
• Starch to make polylactide PLA (corn, heavily fertilized) could substitute PET (tried in sun chip bags)

Question 16

Plants such as Arabidopsis can be engineered to do what?

Answer 16

• Engineered with bacterial genes to make plastics (polyhydroxybutyrate)

Question 17

Benefits and cons to plants as bioplastics

Answer 17

• Benefit: doesn’t use fossil fuels and chemical processes also take energy but can be less than for making synthetic plastics
• Con: other use of farm product that competes with food system
• Question: are bioplastics all biodegradable or compostable?

Question 18

What is a way to compensate for the con of taking product out of the food system to make bioplastics?

Answer 18

• Use crop plant waste like corn and wheat silage

- Currently there is a proposal to use empty fruit bunch from palms harvested for oil

Question 19

Landmine-detecting plant

Answer 19

• TNT dynamite leaches nitrous oxide NO2
• Put in plant visible marker genes (anthocyanin pigment) and NO2 sensitive control gene to singnal to make red leaves
• Plant seeds in suspect area and look for red leaf plants
• Strategy can also be used for other pollutants

Question 20

Camelina oil, what family, where grown, how used

Answer 20

• Little known product from Camelina sativa, Brassicaceae mustard family
• Oil crop in Eastern Europe, can grow in semi-dry land
• Cooking oil produced in Saskatchewan, good omega 3,6,9, FA content
• Unexpected use is conversion to jet fuel that meets or exceeds all petroleum jet fuel specifcations