No. 360: Using carbon dioxide for tomato cultivation in the plant factory (November 24, 2011)

Tokyo Gas will start research on the technology to use carbon dioxide for tomato cultivation in the plant factory in alliance with Chiba University. The technology they wish to develop is to accelerate plant photosynthesis and increase the tomato harvest by 20%. The hydrogen station for fuel cells operated by Tokyo Gas in Tokyo produces carbon dioxide as a by-product. They will separate and collect carbon dioxide in this station, and store it in cylinders.

Starting coming December, Tokyo Gas will supply two cylinders (about 320 kg) of carbon dioxide every month to the plant factory operated by Chiba University. Using the supplied carbon dioxide, the research team will increase carbon dioxide concentration inside the cultivation facilities to 2.5 times as high as the concentration in the air. They will study operation cost and mass production effect, and establish the technology usable for measures for global warming and methodology to increase the efficiency of food production.