Is the direct air capture (DAC) technology effective in lowering the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? The answer remains to be seen, though it is starting to look quite promising, since Swiss company Climeworks has started construction for its second DAC plant Mammoth in Iceland.
Dedicated in the study of DAC, Climeworks had also worked with carbon storage company CarbFix back in 2017 on activating the first carbon negative power plant project Orca, with the former being responsible for capturing carbon dioxide in the air, and the latter studying the final storage of carbon dioxide mineralization within two years. The pilot plant can absorb 4K tons of carbon dioxide each year, and safely store 12.5 tons of carbon dioxide every three months
The second plant of Climeworks has now started construction, with adoption of modular designs, and hopes to absorb 36K tons of carbon dioxide each year. The construction period is expected to be 18-24 months, and CarbFix will also store the captured carbon after the plant commences operation. Jan Wurzbacher, CEO of Climeworks, commented that this is a very important day for both Climeworks and related industries.
With that being said, the enormous and continuous emission of more than 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year may require multiple units of Mammoth or Orca. As a result, there are more than one company who focuses on this particular field, where the US government has also announced an allocation of several billions of funds towards the DAC technology, while many other tech startups are also capturing carbon through solar power and algae.
For Climeworks, the target is to eliminate million tons of carbon dioxide by 2030, before expanding the scale to billion tons by 2050.
(Photo source: Climeworks)