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What Is Azolla's Carbon Emission?

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The Azolla Foundation views azolla as a vitamin packed super plant that replaces some mineral supplements necessary for healthy animals. Azolla has 25-35% protein content and a number of vitamins including vitamin A, vitamin B12, and beta carotene. Azolla also has a number of essential minerals that make it an excellent supplement including calcium, potassium, iron, and phosphorus. These high levels of nutrients make azolla a suitable substitute for 20% of feed for ducks, chickens and other birds. This in effect would remove one fifth the cost of commercial feed the industry would otherwise have to purchase. It is suggested however that azolla should be used in a more moderate way and that if only substituted for 12.5% of the birds normal …show more content…

The Azolla Foundation has pioneered research on azolla’s carbon dioxide capture abilities and has found that Azolla can capture and store a maximum of 70 tons/hectare/year of carbon dioxide. This amount is 30 times faster than northern grasslands and 8 times faster than northern forests (The Azolla Foundation, 2015). Azolla is potentially vastly more efficient than any other plant life in the northern hemisphere at capturing carbon dioxide. The reason azolla is such a good option for carbon dioxide sequestration is that people have incentive to grow it for its other uses unlike grasslands or forest. Other methods proposed to sequester carbon are not nearly as feasible for the amount of carbon that needs to be removed from our atmosphere. The main method proposed is a mechanical chemical process that draws in air with large chimneys but this method has the draw back of high cost. This approach requires large areas for underground storage of carbon dioxide in its gaseous state and large buildings to handle the air which are expensive. Unlike azolla this method does not convert the carbon dioxide into a solid and therefore the captured carbon has to be stored deep underground. Azolla captures carbon within itself and when the azolla dies the plant rots away what’s left is biochar. Biochar is a synthetically maid type of coal that could be burned like any other coal. Burning it would release the carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere however which would defeat purpose of storing it in the first place. Instead of letting the azolla turn to biochar however most of it would be used as a fertilizer or as animal feed which provides an economic incentive. Azolla will be an important part of building a world that has a sustainable way of producing

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