World’s Largest Factory Opens to Combat Pollution
The newly designed carbon dioxide (CO2) removal factory just recently opened and inaugurated in Iceland. It began operating on Wednesday, May, 8. This particular factory is claimed to be the world’s largest plant for direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide. It is a new technology intended to remove the carbon dioxide or the pollution from the atmosphere. Which are those chemicals that harm the health of society. With this factory it definitely aims to improve the air quality.
This new plant or factory is called, “Mammoth.” It is operated by the Swiss company “Climeworks.” It is also said that this factory is ten times larger than its predecessor, “Orca.” Currently, Mammoth has installed 12 modular containers. Which means the amount of vacuum parts that the machine has to capture carbon dioxide from the air. However, by the end of the year, it is expected to have 72 modular containers. To which, according to CNN, with this amount it will have the capacity to capture around 36,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year. This is very significant, because compared to Orca, the first plant, it captured around 4,000 tons of CO2. But it is still not enough for Mammoth to capture most of it. Considering that humans release into the air every single year around 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide chemicals.
Climeworks Partners with Carbfix
Now, the way the direct air capture (DAC) works is that the factory has shipping-container-size boxes and inside of them fans pull outside air through filters that capture the pollution or CO2. Not to mention, this entire process runs on renewable energy from a neighboring geothermal plant.
Well, subsequent to the previous step, after the pollution is captured, the company called “Carbfix” dissolves it in water and pumps it deep into underground. This is when CO2 naturally reacts with basalt rocks and it turns into stone permanently.
Overall, Climeworks partnered with Icelandic company Carbfix in order to inject the captured carbon underground, where it will naturally turn into stone. Thereby permanently locking up the carbon dioxide. Importantly, as previously mentioned, the entire operation is powered by Iceland’s abundant and clean geothermal energy, making it more sustainable for the process to keep active. Which is why the new carbon dioxide factory opened up in Iceland to extract pollution.
Future Improvements Vision
The company aims for potential plants or factories in other parts of the world to contribute to removing the most pollution possible. Essentially, it is racing to scale up, using what they learn from each installation to help improve the next one. They are in a process that CEO Christoph Gebald calls “deployment-led innovation.” In the U.S., Climeworks is already working on three more projects that are each designed to capture at least one million tons of CO2 a year. It’s also developing new projects in Canada, Norway, and Kenya.
Although the new factory strives to decrease carbon dioxide more it’s needed to have an effective result years from now. According to Jan Wurzbacher, the company’s co-founder and co-CEO, said, “Mammoth is just the latest stage in Climeworks’ plan to scale up to one million tons of carbon removal a year by 2030 and 1 billion tons by 2050.” Also, Stuart Haszeldine, professor of carbon capture and storage at the University of Edinburgh said is that, “The new plant is ‘an important step in the fight against climate change.’ It will increase the size of equipment to capture carbon pollution.”
An Effort to Combat Climate Change
The carbon dioxide factory that opened up in Iceland to extract pollution definitely highlights the world’s current largest DAC plant, as a significant development in the fight against climate change. However, it also emphasizes the challenges and controversies that surround DAC technology. Especially, as concerns also arise regarding the potential misuse of captured carbon. Such as its utilization in enhanced oil recovery processes. Which could prolong fossil fuel extraction. To which also emphasizes the need for further advancements and widespread adoption to effectively address rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
Nonetheless, Mammoth represents a significant step in combating climate change, even though it is still insufficient to meet the demands for carbon removal. Keep in mind, larger DAC plants are under construction by Climeworks and other companies, with some aiming to capture even more carbon dioxide annually. According to CEO Christoph Gebald, he told Fast Company the following statement, “This is why we need to start today, and we need to not lose momentum until 2050, so that we can meaningfully remove carbon from the atmosphere when the world will need it most.”
Written by Jeanette Sanchez
Sources:
CNN World: The ‘world’s largest’ vacuum to suck climate pollution out of the air just opened. Here’s how it works
WRAL TechWire: The ‘world’s largest’ vacuum to suck climate pollution out of the air just opened. Here’s how it works
Reuters: Clime works opens world’s largest plant to extract CO2 from air in Iceland
New Scientist: Global capacity to directly suck CO2 from air has just quadrupled
Fast Company: The world’s biggest carbon removal factory just opened in Iceland
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Inset Image Courtesy of Raban_Holzner Flickr Page-Creative Commons License
