Iceland creates a plant that sucks carbon dioxide from the air and turns it into rock

The sprawling Orca plant, built by Switzerland-based start-up Climeworks and Iceland’s CarbFix, consists of four units, each containing two metal boxes, similar to containers used for sea transport.

Orca is named after the Icelandic word “orca” which means “energy”.

The company has claimed that orca plant Every year 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) can be taken out of the air.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), this is equivalent to the annual emissions from about 870 cars.

Last year, global CO2 emissions totaled 31.5 billion tons, according to the International Energy Agency.

Direct air capture is one of the few techniques to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and is considered important by scientists to limit Global warmingIt is responsible for more heatwaves, wildfires, floods and rising sea levels.

According to the IEA, there are currently 15 direct air capture plants operating around the world, capturing over 9,000 tons of CO2 per year.

How does Iceland’s orca plant suck CO2 out of the air?

To collect carbon dioxide, the plant uses a fan to draw air into a collector, which has a filter material inside.

Once the filter material is filled with CO2, the collector is turned off and the temperature is raised to release the CO2 from the material after which the highly concentrated gas can be collected.

The CO2 is then mixed with water and injected into a nearby basalt rock at a depth of 1,000 meters, where it is petrified.

Orca is the only company that destroys CO2 permanently instead of recycling it.

US oil firm Occidental is currently developing the largest direct-air-capture facility to draw 1 million tons of carbon dioxide per year from the open air near some of its Texas oil fields.