Largest direct air capture facility calls Iceland home
Cari Cooney | February 27, 2022The colorless greenhouse gas known as CO2 is one of the most significant regarding global warming. Released into the Earth’s atmosphere from respiration, fermentation and used by plants for photosynthesis, CO2 blocks some of the radiant energy Earth absorbs.
The sour tasting and mildly scented gas has a few methods used against it to rid CO2 from the atmosphere. Direct air capture (DAC) pulls it directly from the air and filters out the gas for a neutral result. Orca is a carbon capture facility in Iceland; it is the largest plant of its kind. The massive factory has one goal: to reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
A sustainable end of life for carbon dioxide
Orca utilizes a three-step process for removing CO2. The carbon dioxide produced by power plants and industrial environments is trapped, transferred, and then buried underground. Through the help of dozens of gigantic fans, Orca draws in air from all around and filters and expels the gas through a heating process. The CO2 is mixed with water and given a final resting place deep below the surface. It gradually shifts from atmospheric waste to rock. Orca is powered by the local, renewable geothermal power station.
Less than two dozen of these air capture plants exist around the globe as of today. Orca cleans the air of roughly 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, which is close to about what 800 cars would put into the atmosphere. Built by Climeworks in collaboration with Carbfix, this university/industry marriage has created a powerful tool in reducing carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
4000 tons per hour as a rate needs to be shown in comparison with photosynthesis globally: around 45000 tons per second.
In reply to #1
Correction: 4000 tons per year.
In reply to #2
...so one would need 3.6e8 of these to do what plants achieve globally.
It might be better to remediate some land and start growing things.
In reply to #3
Yes, but hardly anybody gets rich planting trees.
Now, when you build a huge industrial facility . . . . you put a lot of people to work building it, and staff to operate and maintain it . . . .
Reminds me of the broken window fallacy.