A machine capable of removing 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year has just been switched on in Iceland. The plant – named Orca, after the Icelandic word for "energy" – is the largest carbon removal facility in the world, converting emissions into minerals that can be permanently stored deep underground.
Constructed by Swiss company Climeworks, Orca uses fans to draw air into eight large metal boxes. Highly selective filters inside these collector units then capture carbon dioxide on their surfaces.
Once the filters are full, the collectors are closed and the temperature is raised to between 80 and 100 degrees Celsius (176 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit). This releases the carbon dioxide, which can be collected as a highly concentrated gas.
Using technology developed by Icelandic firm Carbfix, this carbon dioxide is then dissolved in water and buried deep inside the basalt rock formations that lie underground. Over a period of about two years, the carbon in the solution is crystallized into carbonate minerals, which fuse with the rock and become permanently trapped.
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