12 ms·

Largest plant capturing carbon from air starts in Iceland

30 points by kristianpaul 5y ago

toomuchtodo 5y ago
If someone from Climeworks sees this thread, do you have a real time dashboard of energy consumption and total CO2 sequestered? Thank you!
dane-pgp 5y ago
> U.S. oil firm Occidental is currently developing the largest direct-air-capture facility, to pull 1 million tonnes per year This prompted me to look up more details, and I found another article about that company[0] which said: > If governments around the world take climate targets seriously, models estimate that the world will need to bury as much as 10 billion tons of CO2 underground annually by 2050. So the world needs to build about 10,000 of those facilities over the next 30 years? That seems logistically manageable, so it's probably just a question of what the running costs are for such facilities. If the main cost is the electricity, then the falling costs of renewables could be doubly important in the coming decades. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-13/occidental-oxy-wants-to-go-green-to-produce-more-oil https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-13/occidenta...
- ncmncm 5y ago
  The great thing about applications like this is that they really only need to run when the sun shines and the batteries are already fully charged, or anyway when your customer energy demand falls below present renewable generating capacity. Any extra capacity at minimum price does not need to be wasted, because there are infinite uses for the product. Other similar processes include producing and liquifying hydrogen and ammonia for industrial and agricultural processes. There is not much economy of scale for these uses, so you can add them to any installation, big or small.
- jtsiskin 5y ago
  The Afghanistan war cost an estimated $2 trillion. Let’s double the 10,000 and say it takes 20,000 facilities to ‘solve’ the climate crisis. That gives us $100 million to spend per facility to equal the cost of the war.
oliv__ 5y ago
There's this thing that works more or less the same way, except it's free, works 24 hours a day, needs only light and water to function and looks beautiful while doing so... What's that called again? Oh right, a tree.
- dane-pgp 5y ago
  To give some numbers to that idea: "Around 0.9 billion hectares of land worldwide would be suitable for reforestation, which could ultimately capture two thirds of human-made carbon emissions." https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2019/07/how-trees-could-save-the-climate.html https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2019/07/how...
  - ncmncm 5y ago
    Only if we stop producing more.
- saba2008 5y ago
  Carboniferous ended 350M years ago. Today lignin is biodegradable and thus does not capture carbon past tree living mass.
  - montalbano 5y ago
    No. Some of the carbon can end up being stored in the soil: https://extension.psu.edu/how-forests-store-carbon https://extension.psu.edu/how-forests-store-carbon Or alternatively, wood can be used for increasingly complex construction, for example this wooden skyscraper: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/berlins-woho-wooden-skyscraper-to-spring-up-zx5cds675 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/berlins-woho-wooden-skysc... Lastly, just increasing the carbon stored in living mass may be vastly beneficial.
  - ifonly321 5y ago
    If only you could bury that carbon, deep in the earth, to prevent it from biodegrading into the air. You could give it a goofy name, like landfill or something.
nix23 5y ago
>4,000 tons of CO2 per year That is not impressive, just building that thing wasted probably 10 times more than that.
- ncmncm 5y ago
  It is a pilot project. You have to start small and scale up. 4000 tons is small compared to the problem, but it is enough to prove the process. Imagine carrying 4000 tons up a hill. There is way, way more energy available under Iceland than they could ever use otherwise. Scaling up CO2 capture could consume any amount.
  - nix23 5y ago
    They already had a Pilot-project in Switzerland in 2017 https://www.nzz.ch/wissenschaft/kohlendioxid-rueckgewinnung-ein-zuercher-start-up-unternehmen-praesentiert-eine-weltpremiere-im-zuercher-oberland-ld.1298424?reduced=true https://www.nzz.ch/wissenschaft/kohlendioxid-rueckgewinnung-... >Imagine carrying 4000 tons up a hill It's like 750 Cars/year now imagine how many of those you have to Build just to equal even Icelands Volcano-emissions. It has a Hyperloop smell to me to be honest.
    - ncmncm 5y ago
      I.e., you do not understand what "pilot project" means.
      - nix23 5y ago
        >>A pilot study, pilot project, pilot test, or pilot experiment is a small-scale preliminary study conducted to evaluate feasibility, duration, cost, adverse events, and improve upon the study design prior to performance of a full-scale research project. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_experiment
        ncmncm 5y ago

30 points by kristianpaul 5y ago

If someone from Climeworks sees this thread, do you have a real time dashboard of energy consumption and total CO2 sequestered? Thank you!

dane-pgp 5y ago

> U.S. oil firm Occidental is currently developing the largest direct-air-capture facility, to pull 1 million tonnes per year This prompted me to look up more details, and I found another article about that company[0] which said: > If governments around the world take climate targets seriously, models estimate that the world will need to bury as much as 10 billion tons of CO2 underground annually by 2050. So the world needs to build about 10,000 of those facilities over the next 30 years? That seems logistically manageable, so it's probably just a question of what the running costs are for such facilities. If the main cost is the electricity, then the falling costs of renewables could be doubly important in the coming decades. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-13/occidental-oxy-wants-to-go-green-to-produce-more-oil https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-13/occidenta...

ncmncm 5y ago
The great thing about applications like this is that they really only need to run when the sun shines and the batteries are already fully charged, or anyway when your customer energy demand falls below present renewable generating capacity. Any extra capacity at minimum price does not need to be wasted, because there are infinite uses for the product. Other similar processes include producing and liquifying hydrogen and ammonia for industrial and agricultural processes. There is not much economy of scale for these uses, so you can add them to any installation, big or small.
jtsiskin 5y ago
The Afghanistan war cost an estimated $2 trillion. Let’s double the 10,000 and say it takes 20,000 facilities to ‘solve’ the climate crisis. That gives us $100 million to spend per facility to equal the cost of the war.

oliv__ 5y ago

There's this thing that works more or less the same way, except it's free, works 24 hours a day, needs only light and water to function and looks beautiful while doing so... What's that called again? Oh right, a tree.

dane-pgp 5y ago
To give some numbers to that idea: "Around 0.9 billion hectares of land worldwide would be suitable for reforestation, which could ultimately capture two thirds of human-made carbon emissions." https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2019/07/how-trees-could-save-the-climate.html https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2019/07/how...
- ncmncm 5y ago
  Only if we stop producing more.
saba2008 5y ago
Carboniferous ended 350M years ago. Today lignin is biodegradable and thus does not capture carbon past tree living mass.
- montalbano 5y ago
  No. Some of the carbon can end up being stored in the soil: https://extension.psu.edu/how-forests-store-carbon https://extension.psu.edu/how-forests-store-carbon Or alternatively, wood can be used for increasingly complex construction, for example this wooden skyscraper: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/berlins-woho-wooden-skyscraper-to-spring-up-zx5cds675 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/berlins-woho-wooden-skysc... Lastly, just increasing the carbon stored in living mass may be vastly beneficial.
- ifonly321 5y ago
  If only you could bury that carbon, deep in the earth, to prevent it from biodegrading into the air. You could give it a goofy name, like landfill or something.

nix23 5y ago

>4,000 tons of CO2 per year That is not impressive, just building that thing wasted probably 10 times more than that.

ncmncm 5y ago
It is a pilot project. You have to start small and scale up. 4000 tons is small compared to the problem, but it is enough to prove the process. Imagine carrying 4000 tons up a hill. There is way, way more energy available under Iceland than they could ever use otherwise. Scaling up CO2 capture could consume any amount.
- nix23 5y ago
  They already had a Pilot-project in Switzerland in 2017 https://www.nzz.ch/wissenschaft/kohlendioxid-rueckgewinnung-ein-zuercher-start-up-unternehmen-praesentiert-eine-weltpremiere-im-zuercher-oberland-ld.1298424?reduced=true https://www.nzz.ch/wissenschaft/kohlendioxid-rueckgewinnung-... >Imagine carrying 4000 tons up a hill It's like 750 Cars/year now imagine how many of those you have to Build just to equal even Icelands Volcano-emissions. It has a Hyperloop smell to me to be honest.
  - ncmncm 5y ago
    I.e., you do not understand what "pilot project" means.
    - nix23 5y ago
      >>A pilot study, pilot project, pilot test, or pilot experiment is a small-scale preliminary study conducted to evaluate feasibility, duration, cost, adverse events, and improve upon the study design prior to performance of a full-scale research project. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_experiment
      - ncmncm 5y ago