Iceland: factory captures CO2 in ambient air to store it underground

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In Iceland, a recently opened factory is trying to clean the atmosphere by capturing and storing carbon dioxide underground.

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By: Jérémie Richard

This is one of the methods encouraged by the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to contain global warming below 2 ° C: the capture and storage of carbon dioxide in the terrestrial basement.

In Iceland, a factory opened in early September sucks in ambient air and transforms it into rock by injecting it into underground basalt to clean the atmosphere.

Operated by the Swiss start-up Climeworks, this “giant vacuum cleaner” is the result of a tripartite agreement with CarbFix, an Icelandic company that pioneers underground carbon storage, and ON Power, an Icelandic supplier of geothermal energy.

• Environment

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• Iceland

• Swiss