The world’s largest plant designed to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and turn it into rock began operations on Wednesday, the companies behind the plant said.
The plant, named Orca, after the Icelandic word orka, meaning “energy,” consists of four units — each made up of two metal boxes — similar in appearance to the containers used for maritime transport.
The contractors, Switzerland’s Climeworks and Iceland’s Carbfix, said that the plant would draw 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year out of the air when operating at capacity.
Photo: Reuters
The US Environmental Protection Agency said that the figure equates to the emissions of about 870 vehicles.
To collect the carbon dioxide, the plant uses fans to draw air into a collector, which has filter material inside.
Once the filter material is filled with carbon dioxide, the collector is closed and the temperature raised to release the carbon dioxide from the material, after which the highly concentrated gas can be collected.
The carbon dioxide is then mixed with water before being injected at a depth of 1,000m into nearby basalt rock, where it is petrified.
Proponents of the method believe that these technologies can become a major tool in the fight against climate change.
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