On October, 11, at a geothermal power plant in Iceland, the startup inaugurated the first system that does direct air capture and verifiably achieves negative carbon emissions. Although it’s still at pilot scale—capturing only 50 metric tons CO2 from the air each year, it’s the first system to convert the emissions into stone, thus ensuring they don’t escape back into the atmosphere for the next millions of years.
The process of absorbing carbon dioxide from the surrounding air is through the patented Climeworks filters, from which the geothermal station extracts pure carbon dioxide with the help of indirect heat. Instead of using reversible absorption, CarbFix uses Iceland’s plentiful natural resources to capture carbon dioxide. When the gases released from geothermal vents are mixed with water, they get absorbed ever so slightly. The mixture—27 kg of fresh water for each kg of CO2—is then injected 700 meters underground. The reaction of CO2 with basaltic rocks forms solid minerals – carbonates. The burial of harmful greenhouse gases in rocks prevents its release for at least a million years, as Quartz reports.
Although the project is at an experimental stage, scientists believe that such stations with a negative emission index can be launched around the world in the near future. However, such difficulties as project’s high cost can hamper such challenges. According to Climeworks, extraction of just one ton of CO2 from the air costs $ 600.
It is expected that in the coming months TPP will increase its productivity and will be able to capture up to 900 tons per year. This index is not very high, taking into account that it is equivalent to the emission of only 45 Americans. However, the company is confident that this is just the beginning and the potential of such technology is enormous.
For 2025 the company intends to reduce the costs of the process up to $ 100 per ton, 1% simultaneously purifying carbon emissions of all mankind. There are no details about the planned implementation, but with such investors as Bill Gates and the European Space Agency, who willingly spend money on the study of direct air capture, the desired goals will surely be achieved.
Source: www.ecotechnica.com.ua