Climeworks, a Switzerland-based technology company, is allotting construction parameters for its next massive Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant situated in Hellisheiði, Iceland. The firm announced the push yesterday, June 28, in a blog post that heralds a coming facility capable of capturing 36,000 tons of CO2 per year. Climeworks is aptly calling its next DAC plant merely "Mammoth."
There are several various Direct Air Capture companies within the climate industry, including the likes of Mission Zero, Heirloom, Noya, Verdox, and more. While they may offer similar if not somewhat competitive strategies in their approach to CO2 capture, evidence suggests that more efforts within the space are sorely necessary. According to the International Energy Agency (IAE), all but a mere 20 strong DAC facilities exist throughout the globe, capturing an average of 0.01 million metric tons a day - less than a drop in the bucket in atmospheric greenhouse gas emission levels.
Climeworks, which was initially founded in 2009, aims to combat these ever-so-rising levels through sophisticated facilities like its forthcoming Mammoth. The company's existing DAC plant, Climeworks' Orca, came to life back in September 2021. Several of the largest companies in the world, including Microsoft, The Economist, Accenture, Shopify, and more, assisted in its completion. Orca boasts a CO2 capture rate of up to an annualized 4,000 tons, nine times less than its newest counterpart.
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Given both facilities' locations in Hellisheiði, which houses the ON Power Geothermal Park, energy to power both plants isn't an issue. The locale offers the perfect power potential for both Mammoth and Orca to separate CO2 from the air by utilizing renewable energy. Following separation, the CO2 is safely stored in a nearby building that mixes the gas with water before being shot deep into the earth. It eventually turns into solid rock after about two years.
This strategy allows Climeworks immense promise in its efforts to limit greenhouse gasses, as Iceland's subterranean sector is a volcanic wasteland filled with a multitude of cracks and holes to stuff CO2 into. Since 2017, Climeworks has partnered up alongside CO2 storage company Carbfix in its CO2-to-stone storing method, entirely limiting the potential of building new pipeline networks for transporting CO2.
According to the firm's press release, Mammoth isn't expected to be fully operational until construction is completed within 18-24 months. It is the company's 18th project and acts as a stepping stone in the world of DAC technology, a veritable proving ground for extended success in combating CO2 levels. Mammoth's construction comes on the heels of the firm's more recent acquisition of $650 million in an equity round, which took place in early May.
As mentioned previously, Climeworks isn't the only company pushing headlong into the CO2 capturing business. Carbon Engineering is also working on the world's largest Direct Air Capture facility, which will be set in Texas and is slated to launch in 2025 officially. Its plant will boast 1 million tons of CO2 capture potential yet utilizes a very different strategy in capturing CO2 from ambient air. It will most likely use both natural gas and renewable energy to power its process and will also be used in tandem with oil reserve retrieval due to the project's connection with petroleum firm Occidental.
