Largest plant in the world Swiss company sucks_CO2 out of the air in Iceland

On May 8, the Swiss company Climeworks put its new Mammoth plant in Iceland into operation. When fully operational, it can remove 36,000 tons of_CO2 from the atmosphere every year.

Orca" is followed by "Mammoth". The Swiss company Climeworks is thus expressing the fact that its youngest child is much more potent than its largest to date.

Mammoth is located in Iceland, in Hellisheidi to be precise, and uses a gigantic vacuum to suck air through filters. This traps the_CO2. This is one of the biggest causes of climate change.

Experts are certain that the active removal of_CO2 from the atmosphere and its storage is an important element in achieving a negative_{CO2 balance} worldwide from 2050. This means that in a quarter of a century, more carbon dioxide should be removed from the earth's atmosphere worldwide than is emitted into it in the same period.

It is true that far more projects and measures to protect the climate are aimed at reducing_{CO2 emissions}. However, carbon capture and storage₍CSS) is an important building block for accelerating this process and actually reducing the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere at some point.

36,000 tons of_CO2 per year

Climeworks has dedicated itself to this technology, is developing it further and is trying to achieve a greater impact with larger plants. Only 12 of the 72 filter containers are still in operation. By the end of 2024, Mammoth should be in full operation and from then on will be sucking 36,000 tons of_CO2 out of the air every year.

The carbon dioxide molecules remain trapped in a filter. From there, they are dissolved in seawater and pumped into the cavities of basalt rock, with which it forms a solid bond and remains stored.

_{CO2 storage} in rock is a natural process, according to the Carbfix project, which removes the carbon dioxide extracted from the air by Climeworks on Iceland, as the NZZ writes. Its technology only speeds up this process. Carbfix is backed by the Icelandic energy supplier Reykjavik Energy and the universities of Reykjavik, Toulouse and Columbia New York.

It takes a lot of mammoths

The fact that Climeworks has already built its second plant in Iceland is due to the country's exceptional energy wealth in the North Atlantic. The island is located in a zone of strong volcanic activity. Geothermal energy is available in enormous quantities - far more than the population itself needs.

The CCS processes require a lot of energy. This is available in abundance on the volcanic island in the form of geothermal energy - and in_CO2-neutral form to boot. This is why Climeworks has already built its second large plant in Iceland. However, the company also reports that it is building several plants in the USA.

Climeworks can therefore cover its energy requirements in Iceland relatively cheaply. Nevertheless, the costs for_{CO2 removal} are high. According to research by the NZZ, they are several hundred dollars per ton. This is several times higher than what is payable for the emission of one tonne of carbon dioxide in European emissions trading.

For CCS to have a real impact on the climate, a large number of plants like Mammoth need to be built. For comparison: global_{CO2 emissions} in 2022 were 37 billion tons - around one million times as much as Mammoth will one day remove from the atmosphere. Climeworks wants to capture and store one million tons of carbon dioxide by 2030 and one billion tons by 2050.

Costs are therefore an important factor in the expansion of applications for this technology. The NZZ quotes an ETH study that concludes that one tonne of_CO2 removed from the atmosphere using CCS will still cost at least 230 dollars in 2050.