I recently saw Josh Tickell's documentary Fuel (review posted yesterday) and in it he mentioned an exciting new technology from Emerald Energy, Megaflora.
Megaflora is a an agricultural technology that carries with it the potential of
- reducing our dependence on foreign oil
- increase production of biofuel
- provide massive CO2 sequestration
- provide reversal of desertification
Even better, it could theoretically do all these things while both conserving water and increasing potential agricultural output.
Intrigued? I was too, so much so I had to do more research. How could one technology possibly accomplish all this?
Jump to find out.
Before we get to the good stuff, let's look at the company that developed this product. What or who is Emerald Energy?
A pretty conventional oil company, it looks like. Based on their web site, they are currently involved in producing oil from fields in Syria and Colombia, among others. They are a British company, traded on the London Stock Exchange.
But something different is going on in their bio fuels division. They have been quietly rolling out a new technology that could make a big dent in a few of the biggest problems related to fossil fuel production, food production, CO2 sequestration.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the MegaFlora Tree, a hybrid-cross, high-density, short-rotation tree that has been in development for 10 years.
The MegaFlora combines the best qualities of two other trees, through a root grafting system that involves a patented DNA transfer process. Its parents are the fast-growing Paulownia tree and a North American hardwood tree. It is not a genetically modified organism.
As a result, the MegaFlora tree grows to a mature height of 50 ft, with an 8-10" diameter trunk, in just 3 years. It also regrows after cutting from its own tree trunk, and can grow in extremely harsh conditions (of which more anon).
In addition to its fast growing speed and dense, woody trunk, the Megaflora tree features a large leaf volume, which increases its CO2 uptake. My research suggests that CO2 uptake is fastest in young, fast-growing trees, and this is certainly one of them. As I understand it, the carbon in the CO2 is essentially being used to make the fiber of the tree -- the hard "wood" that we would harvest and burn -- or, in this case, chip, render, and distill into a bio fuel.
As if all this wasn't enough, the MegaFlora is also extremely hardy. Its growing tests were conducted in the Pyrennes mountains of Spain, where it was fertilized with municipal sewage sludge. It is said to withstand levels of salinity and boron in soils and water that kill other plants and trees.
Additionally, its ultra-fast growing cycle "hyper-accumulates" these contaminants, which are of course removed during the conversion to bio fuel, leaving the soil cleaner than it began.
So, let's recap:
We have a tree which
- is non-GMO
- is non-invasive (produces no seeds or fruit)
- can be harvested at full maturity within 3 years
- re-grows from its own stump to full maturity in another 3 years
- has huge leaves for carbon sequestration
- can survive in land and on water where nothing else will grow
- actually leaves the soil and water cleaner when it is finished
- can survive on only 300 gallons of water per year from all sources
The catch? The catch is, it's not quite proven yet just exactly how hardy this tree will be. It is currently undergoing extensive testing on a large scale by Emerald Plantations, and some skeptics expect it to be knocked out by higher levels of contamination in the water table.
But you can bet if it lives up to all the expectations mentioned above, Emerald will be selling it to a hell of a lot of landowners who want to do something with their dead land.
Additional reading:
-
Paulowina: An Agroforestry Gem (Trees for Life Journal)
-
The Benefits of Trees in Urban Areas (Colorado Trees.org)
- The Pacific Tree Company "
MegaFolia" info sheet (curiouser and curiouser)