Built by the Swiss company Climeworks in Iceland, the plant is the world’s largest extraction plant for carbon monoxide extraction from the atmosphere.
And although the volume of recoverable gases looks scanty compared to the huge emissions of greenhouse gases on a global scale (a plant called Orca can suck 4000 tons of carbon monoxide a year, which is equivalent to the exhaust of 870 cars), experts call the commissioning of a plant built on lava plateau near geothermal springs, “a step in the right direction.”
The gas extracted from the atmosphere will mix with water and be pumped deep into the rocks, where it will turn to stone in two years.
Co-founder Christopher Gebald said the plant cost $ 15 million to build and that the technology it uses could be “an effective tool in the fight against climate change.” “This is a market that does not yet exist, but which needs to be created,” Gebald emphasized. “Our plant is a pilot project that can be expanded and put on industrial rails.”
There were also critics who considered the plant “an expensive undertaking that distracts attention from the urgent need to dramatically reduce harmful emissions.” But David Morrow, director of research at the American Institute in Washington, called the technology being used “an important addition” to the reduction of harmful emissions into the atmosphere, but not a “substitute” for the measures being taken.
Newspaper headline:
Less greenhouse gases
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