Linköping will grow more climate-smart tomatoes

Plants feed on CO2 and plenty of it is produced at the local Tekniska verken energy company, so there’s a circular win-win solution

The municipally owned Tekniska verken electricity producer, located in the city of Linköping (Sweden) plans to grow its biogas production capacity. That, however, also means that more carbon dioxide will be produced as a by-product. There is an opportunity too, though, as the company has received support from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Action to make use of carbon dioxide by liquefying it.

Thus, it will be the first facility in the Scandinavian country to produce liquid CO2. The packaged industrial gas can find a variety of applications, for example in food growth and processing. Plus, where do you think the bubbles in your fizzy drink come from?

Biogenic carbon dioxide

That type of CO2 is more specifically known as biogenic carbon dioxide in the industry. It is released when biological material is burned or decays, a process that is part of biogas energy fuel production that relies on organic waste.

“Carbon dioxide in liquid form can be easily transported by tanker and used in, for example, greenhouses, the food industry and the process industry,” says Anna Lövsén, business area manager Biogas at Tekniska verken.

She adds: “We have now noticed a very large interest in carbon dioxide for large-scale greenhouse cultivation. By adding carbon dioxide to the greenhouses, growth can be increased when growing vegetables and other plants”.

This is already happening on a large scale in, for example, the Netherlands, but usually with fossil carbon dioxide. In Sweden, planning is currently underway for a number of large greenhouses where renewable carbon dioxide becomes important.

In this way, completely new possibilities are opened up for more tomatoes, for example. Grown in a climate-smart way. The plan is for the project to be put into operation in 2024.