Facility that uses direct air capture to remove carbon dioxide
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The Orca carbon capture plant is a facility that uses direct air capture to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The name "Orca" comes from the Icelandic word "orka", which means "energy".[1] It was constructed by Climeworks and is joint work with Carbfix, an academic-industrial partnership that has developed a novel approach to capture CO2. The plant uses dozens of large fans to pull in air and pass it through a filter. The filter is then released of the CO2 it contains through heat. The CO2 extracted is later mixed with water and pushed into the ground, using a technology from Carbfix.
The plant started sequestering carbon dioxide in 2021. It is said to have cost between $10–15 million to build.[2] It is located in Iceland and is the largest facility of its kind on earth.[3][4][5] It is located about 50 kilometers outside Reykjavík next to the Hellisheiði Power Station, which is run by Reykjavík Energy.[6] It was inaugurated on 8 September 2021 in presence of Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the Prime Minister of Iceland.
Carbon offsetting potential
Climeworks claims that the plant can capture 4000 tons of CO2 per year.[7][8] This equates roughly to the emissions from about 870 cars.[9] A May 2025 report said the plants has so far only captured a small portion of that amount, not even enough to cover emissions produced to generate the electricity used by the plant. [10]
It counts Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the reinsurance company Swiss Re as current customers.[11]
The thousands of tons of carbon dioxide being removed is owed to the nearly 20 direct air capture plants currently functioning in the world. As the world's climate climbs towards 2 degrees Celsius, more technology is needed desperately to sustain our climate, preventing it from reaching severe temperatures.[12]
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