Iceland Creates World's First Plant Able to Capture CO2 From the Air and Store It Underground

Iceland Creates World’s First Plant Able to Capture CO2 From the Air and Store It Underground

Written by Valdemar Medeiros

Published on 10/05/2024 at 17:08

Foto: Climeworks / BBC News Brasil

Be the first to react!

Iceland Has The World’s First Commercially Viable CO2 Capture Plant. The Carbon Dioxide Capture Plant Can Absorb 4,000 Tons Annually.

Atop a formation of solidified volcanic lava thousands of years old, in the outskirts of Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, one can observe what looks like a set of large air conditioning units, the size of shipping containers, arranged around a building. This is the world’s first carbon dioxide capture plant.

Plant Capable Of Capturing CO2 In Iceland Absorbs 4,000 Tons Per Year

The strange image, the finishing touch on a landscape that appears extraterrestrial, is unique not only for its appearance but also for its function: it is the first viable system in the world capable of capturing carbon dioxide (CO) from the air and storing it underground.

The carbon dioxide capture plant in Iceland, the first of its kind in operation, was developed by the Swiss company Climeworks under the premise that to truly achieve a goal of net-zero global emissions, solutions for removing CO2 from the air are necessary.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Why Was The Carbon Dioxide Capture Plant Installed In Iceland?

For Nielsen, it is necessary to have an active role in cleaning up all the mess that companies have left since the industrial revolution began; however, the company is not here to substitute emission reductions.

The main reason this technology alone is not sufficient to address the risks of climate change is the plant’s limited capacity to capture CO2. While it sounds impressive that a single carbon dioxide capture plant can absorb 4,000 tons of CO2 per year, in 2023, global CO2 emissions reached 37.4 gigatons (37 billion tons).

The intense volcanic activity in Iceland is the primary reason Climeworks has established its plants on the island, located at the boundary of the tectonic plates of America and Eurasia.

In addition to providing clean geothermal energy, with no greenhouse gas emissions, the volcanic activity means that Iceland’s subsoil is primarily composed of basalts, porous volcanic rocks that are the perfect receptacle for atmospheric CO2.

How Does The New Plant Capable Of Capturing CO2 Work?

The gas that the carbon dioxide capture plant collects from the environment is mixed with water and sent through pipes to a kind of dome protruding from the surface and operated by another company, CarbFix. There, the mixture is injected under pressure, 2 km underground, where it reacts with the basalts, and the CO2 is calcified over millions of years.

The representative of CarbFix, Edda Aradóttir, stated in an interview that the company’s focus is for large CO2-emitting industries worldwide to contract these types of services to deposit their emissions in Iceland.

2 Comments

most recent

older Most voted

Antônio

#7638

12/05/2024 12:19

Plantar árvores é mais eficiente,e não custa nada…e ainda produzem oxigênio.. apresento a vcs a tecnologia das árvores, muito melhor..

Respond

José

#7632

12/05/2024 11:52

Colocando a sujeira debaixo do tapete kkkkkkk

Respond

Iceland Creates World’s First Plant Able to Capture CO2 From the Air and Store It Underground

Iceland Has The World’s First Commercially Viable CO2 Capture Plant. The Carbon Dioxide Capture Plant Can Absorb 4,000 Tons Annually.

Plant Capable Of Capturing CO2 In Iceland Absorbs 4,000 Tons Per Year

Why Was The Carbon Dioxide Capture Plant Installed In Iceland?

How Does The New Plant Capable Of Capturing CO2 Work?

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

A giant brown band visible from space, approximately 8,850 kilometers long, connected Africa to America in the Atlantic Ocean, and satellites revealed that it is neither land nor pollution, but the largest accumulation of seaweed in the world, which broke records in 2025.

Workers were opening a modern road in Dover when they found, 6 meters below the asphalt, a 3,500-year-old boat made of stitched oak and plant fibers.

Instead of burning or burying old tires, an American city is transforming about 2,000 of them into the street itself, paving its first sections with a quieter and more durable rubber asphalt.

In just one cast, fishermen are surprised to capture 14,096 mullets in Bombinhas and close a historic season with 58,000 fish; scene recorded in the Santa Catarina paradise marks the last day of the 2026 season.

Russia brings to life a prototype of a supersonic passenger jet and aims for the return of commercial flights above the speed of sound with the promise of less noise near airports.

Motorcyclist sees excavator arriving at the edge of a river in Bosnia, calls neighbors in minutes and turns a hydroelectric project into a resistance lasting more than 10 years with five expired concessions.

USP wants to read the DNA of up to 5,000 Brazilian couples before pregnancy to discover if future babies may inherit silent genetic diseases.

Nubank customers fear losing money after an out-of-court liquidation notice by the Central Bank, but the bank admits operational error, keeps licenses active, and the Central Bank denies intervention.

It seems like something out of a movie, but it happens in Brazil: when the national team takes the field in the World Cup, even the power grid changes its behavior because millions pause their routine, turn on TVs, and alter energy consumption all at once.

With cameras attached to their heads, thousands of workers in India are recording themselves cutting fruits, folding clothes, and cooking to train artificial intelligence robots that, in the future, are expected to take over household tasks.

A jacket that extracts drinking water from the air seems like something out of a movie, but it has already been tested by scientists and could become an ally in emergencies.

Iceland Creates World’s First Plant Able to Capture CO2 From the Air and Store It Underground

Iceland Has The World’s First Commercially Viable CO2 Capture Plant. The Carbon Dioxide Capture Plant Can Absorb 4,000 Tons Annually.

Plant Capable Of Capturing CO2 In Iceland Absorbs 4,000 Tons Per Year

Why Was The Carbon Dioxide Capture Plant Installed In Iceland?

How Does The New Plant Capable Of Capturing CO2 Work?

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

A giant brown band visible from space, approximately 8,850 kilometers long, connected Africa to America in the Atlantic Ocean, and satellites revealed that it is neither land nor pollution, but the largest accumulation of seaweed in the world, which broke records in 2025.

Workers were opening a modern road in Dover when they found, 6 meters below the asphalt, a 3,500-year-old boat made of stitched oak and plant fibers.

Instead of burning or burying old tires, an American city is transforming about 2,000 of them into the street itself, paving its first sections with a quieter and more durable rubber asphalt.

In just one cast, fishermen are surprised to capture 14,096 mullets in Bombinhas and close a historic season with 58,000 fish; scene recorded in the Santa Catarina paradise marks the last day of the 2026 season.

Russia brings to life a prototype of a supersonic passenger jet and aims for the return of commercial flights above the speed of sound with the promise of less noise near airports.

Motorcyclist sees excavator arriving at the edge of a river in Bosnia, calls neighbors in minutes and turns a hydroelectric project into a resistance lasting more than 10 years with five expired concessions.

USP wants to read the DNA of up to 5,000 Brazilian couples before pregnancy to discover if future babies may inherit silent genetic diseases.

With cameras attached to their heads, thousands of workers in India are recording themselves cutting fruits, folding clothes, and cooking to train artificial intelligence robots that, in the future, are expected to take over household tasks.

A jacket that extracts drinking water from the air seems like something out of a movie, but it has already been tested by scientists and could become an ally in emergencies.

Car carrier ship may receive molten salt nuclear reactor after study evaluates shielding, stability, load, safety, and operation without refueling throughout its entire lifespan.

Rocket that became a symbol of the Japanese space crisis launches again, tests version created to reduce costs and carries six satellites with missions ranging from space debris to the study of the Universe

USP wants to read the DNA of up to 5,000 Brazilian couples before pregnancy to discover if future babies may inherit silent genetic diseases.

Nubank customers fear losing money after an out-of-court liquidation notice by the Central Bank, but the bank admits operational error, keeps licenses active, and the Central Bank denies intervention.

It seems like something out of a movie, but it happens in Brazil: when the national team takes the field in the World Cup, even the power grid changes its behavior because millions pause their routine, turn on TVs, and alter energy consumption all at once.

With cameras attached to their heads, thousands of workers in India are recording themselves cutting fruits, folding clothes, and cooking to train artificial intelligence robots that, in the future, are expected to take over household tasks.

A jacket that extracts drinking water from the air seems like something out of a movie, but it has already been tested by scientists and could become an ally in emergencies.