The world’s largest plant designed to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and turn it into rock has started running, says an article published in The Guardian.
Draw’s 4000 tonnes of Co2
The plants, named Orca after the Icelandic word “orka” meaning “energy”, consist of four units, each made up of two metal boxes that look like shipping containers. Constructed by Switzerland’s Climeworks and Iceland’s Carbfix, when operating at capacity the plant will draw 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the air every year, according to the companies.
Working process
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, that equates to the emissions from about 870 cars. The plant cost between US$10 and 15m to build, Bloomberg reported.
The CO2 is then mixed with the water before being injected at a depth of 1,000 meters into the nearby basalt rock where it is mineralized. Proponents of so-called carbon capture and storage believe these technologies can become a major tool in the fight against climate change.
Critics however argue that the technology is still prohibitively expensive and might take decades to operate at scale.
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Source: TheGuardiane
