World's largest carbon capture plant opens in Iceland

Swiss tech company Climeworks has commenced operations at the world's largest direct air carbon capture plant in Iceland.

The facility, known as "Orca", was delivered in collaboration with the company's Icelandic partner Carbfix. It sequesters carbon directly from the air, burying it as rocks deep underground.

Read more: Construction begins on 4,000t carbon capture project in Iceland

The push for increased carbon capture technology has become something of a hot topic, with the IPCC listing carbon capture as an essential part of the road to net-zero.

Orca reportedly provides "immediate impact" on the environment - every tonne of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere is an extra tonne not actively contributing to climate change.

The plant has the capacity to remove roughly 4,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year, the company claims.

This first plant provides a stepping-stone for Climeworks' ambitions to reach megaton removal capacity by the second half of the decade, based on the company's scalable solutions.

“We are proud, excited, and beyond delighted to have arrived at this stage in our journey to reverse climate change," Climeworks' co-CEO Christoph Gebald. "I want to take this opportunity to convey my gratitude and appreciation to the Government of Iceland, our partners in Iceland, our trusted investors, our corporate clients and pioneers, partners, the media, and our team of Climeworkers in making Orca a reality.’’

Construction on the project began in May 2020 and the building process involves stackable container-sized carbon dioxide collector units.

The relatively simple structure has allowed for Orca's building phase to last only 15 months. The plant was officially opened on September 8.

Being of a simple design, it is also easy to replicate, the company revealed, with Climeworks hoping to apply what they learned with the project to create larger plants at different locations worldwide, wherever requisite renewable storage infrastructure exists.

Read more: Is carbon capture essential for sustainable aviation?

“Orca, as a milestone in the direct air capture industry, has provided a scalable, flexible and replicable blueprint for Climeworks’ future expansion," according to Climeworks' other co-CEO Jan Wurzbacher.  "With this success, we are prepared to rapidly ramp up our capacity in the next years."

He added: "Achieving global net-zero emissions is still a long way to go, but with Orca, we believe that Climeworks has taken one significant step closer to achieving that goal.’’    

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