The world’s largest facility to remove CO2 from the air

For many years, attempts have been made to eliminate part of the CO2 in the atmosphere as another tool to combat the Climate Crisis in which we find ourselves.

There are different methods that achieve this, but they are still expensive and the plants in operation are small and experimental. A novelty in this field is that the largest plant of this type has been built so far, it is a project by the Swiss company Climeworks, the plant is in Iceland and it is expected to become operational shortly.

The plant, called Mammooth, uses renewable energy from local geothermal sources, making it an energy-sustainable solution, and when fully operational it will remove 36,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere, which is like a drop in the bucket sea of CO2 that we have in the atmosphere. But all the drops are important to try to reduce the problem we face.

Directly removing CO2 from the air, known as direct air capture (DAC), is one of the emerging strategies that promises to help mitigate this problem. Although there are different methods that achieve this elimination, most are still expensive and the plants in operation are small and experimental.

The CO2 Capture and Storage process in this plant is as follows:

. Air extraction: The plant extracts ambient air using large fans.

. High Capacity Filters: The air is forced to pass through specialized filters that absorb CO2. These filters are designed to be more efficient and durable, increasing the plant’s capture capacity.

. Compression: Once the filters are saturated with CO2, they are heated to release the gas, which is then compressed and prepared for storage.

. Underground Injection: Compressed CO2 is mixed with water and injected into underground basalt formations, where it is mineralized and converted to solid rock in a natural process accelerated by Carbfix technology.

Below you can see a photo of the plant

Foto Mammoth

The development of the Mammoth plant and others like it is a crucial component of a multifaceted approach to addressing climate change. Along with emissions reduction, adoption of renewable energy and other carbon capture technologies, direct air capture can play a vital role in helping to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels.

But the problem is global scalability. To have a significant impact on global CO2 emissions, thousands of plants like this would be needed operating around the world. This involves not only the construction of the plants, but also the development of infrastructure for the safe and long-term storage of the captured CO2.

These CO2 removal technologies can also be applied to other current industrial processes, and make them more sustainable, but the problem is cost, and that is why they are not yet being applied more widely.

We can never forget that the most important step is to stop polluting as soon as possible, but everything that reduces the pollution we generate is also important, and we must try to implement it as soon as possible.

The truth is that the challenge before us is enormous, and any action that can help make our society more sustainable should not be ruled out.