Another carbon dupm opens in Russia

Carbon dumps needed to test greenhouse gas emission control technologies.

Photo by: Reimphoto / iStock

The Republic of Tatarstan expects to launch the Carbon Povolzhye carbon polygon by the end of 2022. Kazan Federal University (KFU) will be the operator of the facility.

The site is intended to calculate the carbon balance of the region. As clarified by KFU, the university is now waiting for the delivery of the necessary equipment.

“Installation of the monitoring equipment will be, I really hope, this year. The edge is early next year. And all the ground tests, what we can do with the equipment that Kazan Federal University has already now, and we have a lot of it and good ones, all these tests are already underway,” Svetlana Selivanovskaya, Director of KFU Institute of Ecology and Nature Management, clarified to the agency.

The scientist added that the university already has a so-called pulsation system to monitor flows, emissions and the flow of gases over forested areas. A weather station is also being installed in the forest. Another pulsation system will be placed at the Kuibyshev reservoir in the future.

The project on creation of a network of carbon landfills in Russia has been carried out since 2020. The first such site was opened in the Kaluga region.

The polygon is an area with a special ecosystem for developing and testing technologies for remote and ground-based monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and so on) and other parameters important for the climate on forest land and agricultural land.

It should be noted that Kurgan State University (KSU) has already set up its own carbon mini-pilot on an agricultural plot. The harvested crops are planned to be studied in laboratories, assessing the dynamics of carbon absorption and release by plants. The students will also study the carbon potential of growing a number of crops.

As Natalia Nesgovorova, head of the Department of Geography, Fundamental Ecology and Nature Management at KSU, explained, pumpkins are the focus among these crops. The pumpkin was chosen because of the large area of its leaves. With their help the plant intensively absorbs and assimilates carbon dioxide.

In this way, the pumpkin plants reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, helping to combat global warming and its consequences.

The university said it managed to grow over 80kg of Nutsack pumpkins and about 78kg of Grey pumpkins in the university’s kitchen garden this year. The largest fruit reached a weight of 15 kilograms.

Cover photo: Alx_Yago / iStock