Otherwise, the process is not net negative or net removing,” says Christoph Beuttler, Climeworks’ head of climate policy.Ĭost is another hurdle still keeping the direct air capture industry from growing large enough to make a huge dent in global greenhouse gas emissions. “If you’re in the business of removing CO2 from the air, you want to emit as little fossil fuel CO2 as possible. As a result, they’ll likely rely on a combination of renewable energy and natural gas. Even larger direct air capture plants are scheduled to come online in Texas and Scotland in coming years, but those use a different filtration process that requires vastly more heat and energy. That, paired with Climeworks’ solid direct air capture process, gives Orca an edge over other competitors. The other advantage of the plant’s location is its proximity to a geothermal energy plant, which provides the plant with a constant supply of waste heat and renewable energy. One such pipeline ruptured last year in Mississippi, hospitalizing residents of a small, majority-Black community. There are already some pipelines that move CO2 so that it can be shot into the ground to force out oil reserves, a process called enhanced oil recovery. Fresh basalt is a better home for the captured CO2 because it’s more porous - giving the carbon more nooks and crannies to fill.īy siting Orca in the same remote location where the CO2 will be stored, the operation avoids one of the potential pitfalls with carbon removal: creating a new network of pipelines to transport captured carbon dioxide. While basaltic rock is relatively common around the world, volcanically active Iceland is particularly suited for storing carbon dioxide because it has relatively younger basalt. But trapped in rock, Carbfix thinks the CO2 captured by Orca can be safely sequestered for thousands of years. That CO2 escapes back into the atmosphere relatively quickly. Image: ClimeworksĬlimeworks’ two other commercial-scale direct air capture plants turn the carbon dioxide into a product used as fertilizer or in fizzy drinks. Climeworks’ Orca direct air capture plant in Hellisheidi, Iceland. The two companies have already tried this out in a pilot project, but Orca is the pair’s first commercial-scale operation. Over the course of two years, what was once a kind of sparkling water becomes solid rock.Ĭlimeworks has partnered with the company Carbfix to keep the captured CO2 safely locked away in Iceland’s basalt rock formations. The carbonated water reacts with basaltic rock, creating carbonate minerals. That slurry then travels just a few hundred meters (about a quarter of a mile) away before it is injected deep into the ground.
Here, it’s mixed with a lot of water - about 27 tons of water for every ton of carbon dioxide. Once the CO2 has been separated out of the air, it heads through pipes to an adjacent building where it can be prepped to be permanently stored. The unit heats up the filter to about 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit), which releases the trapped carbon dioxide. When the filter is fully saturated, it’s time for step two in the process. Climeworks wouldn’t get into too much detail about how its filters work in an interview with The Verge, other than saying that it uses a base to attract CO2, which is mildly acidic. The air passes over a special solid sorbent filter that traps the carbon dioxide. Here’s how it works: The fans suck in air. Climeworks uses a method called solid direct air capture to trap CO2.
0 kommentar(er)
