Swiss carbon capture firm Climeworks has switched on its newest direct air capture and storage (DAC+S) plant in Iceland.
Ten times bigger than its predecessor, the Mammoth plant will have an initial capture capacity of up to 36,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year by filtering it from the air before storing the gas underground.
Using renewable energy supplied by Icelandic energy firm ON Power to power its DAC process, the plant has already begun to capture its first CO2, with twelve of its total 72 collector containers installed onsite.
Once released from the filters, the CO2 is transported by storage partner Carbfix underground where it is reacted with basaltic rock, which transforms into stone and is permanently stored.
Commenting on the launch, Jan Wurzbacher, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Climeworks, called the plant ‘another proof point’ in the company’s journey to megatonne capacity by 2030 and gigatonne by 2050.
Direct air capture (DAC) technology removes CO2 directly from the atmosphere. Large-scale DAC facilities utilise specialised filters or chemical reactions to capture CO2 molecules. Once captured, the CO2can be stored underground or used in various industrial processes. DAC offers a promising solution for reducing atmospheric CO2 levels and combating climate change by actively removing greenhouse gases from the air. However, critics of DAC denounce the technology for its high energy consumption, potentially high costs and scalability issues. DAC facilities require significant energy inputs, often from fossil fuels, which may offset environmental benefits.
“It is exemplary of our continuous R&D investments to further optimise our technology and gain maturity through on-the-ground experience.”
“Constructing multiple real-world plants in rapid sequences makes Climeworks the most deployed carbon removal company with DAC at the core,” he added.
Having analysed nearly 200 million data points each day over the past seven years of ‘field work’, the company’s engineering team was able to use its findings to optimise the new plant’s capabilities.
Fans pull air into the collectors, then run it over a solid filter material to separate out the carbon dioxide. ©Climeworks
Through 2030, Climeworks plans to deploy megatonne hubs as outlined in its roadmap. The company is involved in three megatonne DAC hub proposals in the US, all of which secured public funding totalling over $600m from the US Department of Energy.
Project Cypress in Louisiana, the largest of the three, received an initial $50m in March to begin operations.
Having expressed its intent to replicate these megatonne hubs on a global scale, the company is actively pursuing projects in Norway, Kenya and Canada while exploring additional potential sites for DAC+S.
Valued at around $220m in 2023, the DAC systems market is projected to reach a market size of $2.76bn by the end of 2030 at a CAGR of 43.5%, according to recent market research.
