News

Construction starts in Iceland on world’s biggest CO2-sucking plant

A trio of companies has begun building the world’s first large-scale CO2 capture and storage plant in Iceland, which they say will remove 4,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere a year.

The plant, called "Orca", uses fans to suck in air and filter out some 90% of its CO2, which is turned into carbonate minerals for storage underground.

Developing the plant are company Climeworks, which makes the CO2 collectors; Carbfix, which owns the CO2 mineralising technology; and Iceland’s ON Power, which will power the plant with geothermal energy.

Construction began last month, and they say the plant will be running in the spring of 2021.

A Climeworks plant in Hinwil, Switzerland (Climeworks)

Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks, said: "Breaking ground on the construction of Orca marks an exciting milestone for Climeworks and an important step in the fight against climate change. Climeworks’ new plant Orca demonstrates that scalable, pure carbon dioxide removal via direct air capture is possible. And we are excited to be a vital part in kickstarting the carbon dioxide removal industry."

Climeworks seeks income through a subscription scheme in which individuals pay a monthly amount. Plans start at £6, allowing a subscriber to claim to have removed 85kg of CO2 from the atmosphere a year, and rise to £44 a month, which pays for the removal of 600kg of CO2 a year. 

The company says it currently has around 3,000 subscribers from 54 countries.

It is also funded by private investors, and had achieved $110m in such funding as of August this year. https://climeworks.com/news/recent-investment-in-climeworks-has-been-boosted-from

Image: The plant, called "Orca", will use fans to suck in air and filter out some 90% of its CO2, which is turned into carbonate minerals for storage underground (Credit: Climeworks)

Story for GCR? Get in touch via email: [email protected]

Comments

  1. We put roughly 36.8 billion metric tons of CO2 per year into the atmosphere .

    The factory is the worlds CO2 Sucking In Plant.

    We have a Long Way To Go !.

    Why Not Say “NO” To Big Businesses ?.

    The Worlds Govenments of the World have the Power to Stop Big Businesses ! they have the Power We the People of Earth have given them . Stop All The Damaging Activities Around The World ! Out Law Them !.

    The U.S.A. buy CO2 emissions from other countries so they can keep pumping poison into the atmosphere destroying the ozone layer.

    Stop countries doing that.

    I know it science fiction but its RIGHT ! It’s time to put differences aside & join together as ONE PEOPLE & THAT THE PEOPLE OF EARTH !.

    SAVE ARE PLANT ! NOW FOR US & ALL FUTURE HUMANKIND !. STOP THE WAY OF THINKING LEAVE IT TO THE NEXT GENERATION TO SORT OUT !.

Comments are closed.

Latest articles in News