[Stoves] Fuel production, biochar, and feeding the stove in 2040

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear AD

This is most interesting.

I will think about the mechanism that might assist growth based on static
charges and discharges. Something that might be related (you never know...)
is something called 'hot ice'. Ice will form from water at temperatures well
above 0 C if a voltage of about 6 million volts per meter is applied. It
turns solid. This voltage/m is easily attained at the molecular level in
proteins. It is likely that there is a lot of solid water in living biomass.


The charge from the environment might assist some process that improves
anything from the efficiency of respiration to the formation of carbon
compounds. Surrounding the field and or applying a charge to the plants does
not mean having to run a current through them. It is the static charge
itself that produces the hot ice. Its role in living organisms is probably
wholly unknown. It could just as well be a cause of releasing the solid to a
liquid form at the molecular level, allowing the proteins to be more
effective.

It is well known that enhanced CO2 reduces the water need of plants.
(Reducing the CO2 in the atmosphere increases their water demand of the
entire biome.) Perhaps, given the water available, the increased CO2 inside
the sheltered fields has the same beneficial effect on growth as light
irrigation. 

I would think the difference in the two theories could be tested by putting
up wooden walls and plastic walls to compare the effects. Wood stored
outdoors is really bad at holding a static charge and the plastic is really
good.

Regards
Crispin

++++++
Dear Crispin,
no I did not measure the CO2 content in the topless greenhouse. The nights
are generally calm. It is the days that are windy, because during the day,
updrafts of hot air creat local low pressure areas and air from neighbouring
relatively high pressure areas flows into these low pressure areas. A woman
scientist from a university in north of Maharashtra is advocating the same
system, but she claims that the higher yield was due to static electricity
generated in the plastic film surrounding the plants. Whatever may be the
cause , the fact remains that the crops raised in a topless greenhouse give
higher yield.
Yours
A.D.Karve