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The world’s largest carbon capture machine, touted as a climate change mitigation tool, has been operated in Iceland.
The $ 15 million “Direct Air Capture” (DAC) machine built by Zurich-based Climeworks was launched at Hellisheiði power station in Iceland on Wednesday.
Called Orca, it will capture 4,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, equivalent to the annual emissions of around 790 cars.
However, that total is only a fraction of global carbon dioxide emissions, which stood at 34.7 billion tonnes last year, according to the International Energy Agency.
Orca is made up of metallic “air purifiers” that suck carbon dioxide from the ambient air using fans, before extracting it with a chemical filter.
The carbon dioxide is then stored underground, reducing the amount of greenhouse gases reaching the atmosphere.
The gas can be permanently stored in deep geological formations, or used to make fuels, chemicals, building materials and other products.
“Orca, as a milestone in the direct air capture industry, has provided a scalable, flexible and repeatable model for the future expansion of Climeworks,” said Jan Forzbacher, co-CEO and co -Founder of Climeworks. a long way to go. However, with Orca, we believe Climeworks has taken an important step towards achieving this goal.
Forzbacher told Bloomberg it cost between $ 10 million and $ 15 million to build Orca, including construction, site development and storage.
“The cost per tonne of Orca is probably less important than what we’re going to learn, to speed up scaling and ultimately lower prices,” he said.
Climeworks was commissioned to open the world’s first commercial-scale DAC factory in its home country of Switzerland in 2017, building on prototypes from the laboratories of ETH Zurich research university.
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Iceland have used this technique before, but Hellisheidi’s Orca is the largest DAC to date.
Its strict design aims to embody “the interconnection of nature and technology” in the Icelandic landscape, according to Climeworks.
The Orca consists of eight “strong and compact” oversized assembly units, stacked in half.
These collectors capture CO2 by sucking in air using a fan. Inside the collectors is a chemical filter material that collects carbon dioxide, while allowing air to flow to the other side. Once this filter is saturated with carbon dioxide, the accumulator is shut off so that no more air can enter.
Then, the interior of the collector – and the captured carbon dioxide – is heated using energy from Hellisheii geothermal power plant. This releases carbon dioxide from the filter and extracts it in a concentrated form.
Then another company, Carbfix, mixes the carbon dioxide with water and pumps it deep into the earth.
“Thanks to natural mineralization, carbon dioxide reacts with basalt rock and turns to stone within a few years. This is how carbon dioxide is removed from the air and returned to the earth permanently and safely. “, explains Climeworks.
Climeworks said the technology could easily be replicated in different places around the world, and on ever-larger scales, to increase the amount of carbon dioxide released.
Source: Daily Mail
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