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There are broadly two strategies to meet the challenge of climate change. One focuses on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, so that we don’t add to the problem. The other is to do something about the gases already up there, so that we reduce the problem. An example of the second strategy would be technology to capture carbon dioxide – and the world’s biggest plant has started functioning in Iceland.
Watch:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q7RVT63u4E)
Global efforts to postpone the climate apocalypse depend on this project called the Orca in southwest Iceland, with a capacity to pull out 4,000 metric tons of CO2 – the chief culprit of global warming – from the atmosphere every year. Its developer, Climeworks (https://climeworks.com/orca), says it is the biggest plant of its kind in the world, and it has overnight increased the global carbon capture capacity by 40 percent. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/09/08/co2-capture-plan-iceland-climeworks/) If it succeeds, it can serve as a model for many more plants around the world.
This is how it works. (https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/9/22663597/largest-direct-air-capture-plant-c02-climeworks-iceland) There are huge boxes, similar to shipping containers, with large fans built into them. They suck CO2 out of the air. The CO2 is caught in their filters, which are then heated, releasing the gas, which is mixed with water and released deep underground, where it will turn into stone after a long time. (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/09/worlds-biggest-plant-to-turn-carbon-dioxide-into-rock-opens-in-iceland-orca) The captured CO2 can be disposed of in many ways: Mix it with hydrogen and you get fuel. Release it in farms and let plants process it to make their food. Put it in soda drinks and add fizz.
How the captured CO2 is put to use will determine if a market develops around this technology, making such plants economically viable. Orca spends $600-800 per metric ton of CO2, and will have to depend on government subsidies. (That’s ok: California subsidizes electric cars $450-500 per ton of CO2 saved.) If the cost comes down, and if the output (CO2) brings money, the virtuous cycle will go on.
We will need to capture close to a billion metric tons of CO2 every year by 2050 to achieve carbon neutral goals, according to the International Energy Agency. (https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050)