Climeworks opens new CO2 filter plant in Iceland
Published: Wednesday, May 8th 2024, 18:50
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The Swiss start-up Climeworks, which specializes in carbon capture, has opened a new CO2 filter plant in Iceland. This is around ten times the size of the previous one, making it the largest in the world, as the start-up announced on Wednesday.
"Today is all about scaling up," said Co-Founder and Co-Managing Director Jan Wurzbacher at a virtual media conference to mark the opening. In other words, the opening of the new facility signals the start-up's phase of rapid growth.
In fact, the capacity has been significantly increased and lessons have been learned from experience with the previous systems, Wurzbacher continued. As a result, processes have become more efficient and cost-effective. Nevertheless, the company still needs a lot of financing capital - private and public - to be able to remove CO2 from the atmosphere on a large scale.
The new facility bears the name "Mammoth". It follows on from the "Orca" facility, which was also stationed in Iceland and opened in 2021.
According to the information provided, the new plant has 72 collectors, 12 of which are already in operation. The rest are to be activated this year. At full capacity, "Mammoth" can absorb and store up to 36,000 tons of CO2 per year from the air.
Storing CO2 in the soil
With Climeworks' technology, known as Direct Air Capture (DAC), the greenhouse gas is sucked in and then stored in the ground. The technology is considered expensive and is not yet available on a large scale. However, Climeworks recently qualified for public funding from the US Department of Energy and received a sum of 50 million dollars for a plant in the USA.
The start-up works with a large number of companies, including the asset manager Partners Group, the major bank UBS, the reinsurer Swiss Re, the car importer Amag and the major US bank JPMorgan. The first corporate clients for the "Orca" system included the software giant Microsoft and the payment platform Stripe. The Swiss company now also offers compensation packages that include natural methods of CO2 removal such as reforestation or biochar.
The company is currently examining opportunities for carbon capture in Canada, Norway, Oman and Kenya. With regard to Iceland, however, it is clear that there is no geological limit to CO2 storage in and around the island - "even if all of humanity wanted to store its CO2 here," said Chief Operating Officer Douglas Chan, who was on site.
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