The world’s largest direct air capture and storage (DAC+S) plant, designed to suck planet-heating pollution from the atmosphere, commenced operations in Iceland.
- Dubbed “Mammoth,” this facility marks the second commercial DAC plant established by Swiss company Climeworks in Iceland.
- Mammoth dwarfs its predecessor, Orca, by tenfold, with the latter having commenced operations in 2021. The plant is designed for a nameplate capture capacity of up to 36,000 tons of CO₂ per year once in full swing by filtering CO₂ from the air and storing it permanently underground.
Direct air capture technology
- Direct air capture technology is a form of carbon dioxide (CO2) removal that takes CO2 from ambient, or still, air.
- Direct air capture technology involves the extraction of air and the removal of carbon through chemical processes.
- The separated CO2 can then be permanently stored deep underground, or it can be converted into products.
- There has been a growing focus on next-generation climate solutions like Direct Air Capture (DAC), driven by the ongoing combustion of fossil fuels.
- Carbon dioxide levels, a significant contributor to global warming, reached unprecedented heights in the Earth’s atmosphere in 2023.
- Technologies like DAC face criticism for being costly, requiring significant energy inputs, and lacking proven scalability.
- Additionally, some climate advocates express concern that the focus on carbon removal may divert attention and resources away from initiatives to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
