Largest Carbon Capture Plant in the World Opens in Iceland

The world's largest "direct air capture" plant has just opened in Iceland, reports Tim McDonnell. "Operated by the Swiss engineering startup Climeworks, the plant, known as Orca, will annually draw down a volume of emissions equivalent to about 870 cars." Orca joins around a dozen smaller plants currently operating in Europe, the U.S., and Canada.

"The plant is composed of eight boxes about the size of shipping containers, each fitted with a dozen fans that pull in air. CO2 is filtered out, mixed with water, and pumped into deep underground wells, where over the course of a few years it turns to stone, effectively removing it from circulation in the atmosphere."

The project is funded by insurance giant Swiss Re, which is "essentially buying an undisclosed volume of carbon offset credits to count against its own carbon footprint." The capital "will help DAC scale and bring the cost down; experts predict it could reach $150 per ton in the next 5-10 years." If made affordable enough, the captured carbon can be sold to "manufacturers who can use it as a raw material for cement and other products, or to oil companies that, ironically, use it to help dredge up more oil."