Climeworks has unveiled the world’s largest operational direct air capture (DAC) plant, the Mammoth plant in Iceland. This plant is nearly ten times larger than the previous record holder and is designed to extract carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere.
The urgency of climate change and insufficient efforts to reduce emissions have prompted UN scientists to estimate that billions of tons of carbon need to be removed from the atmosphere each year to achieve global climate objectives.
Also read: Europe’s largest carbon capture project underway in Rotterdam port
“Starting operations of our Mammoth plant is another proof point in Climeworks’ scale-up journey to megaton capacity by 2030 and gigaton by 2050,” Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and co-CEO of Climeworks, said.
Critics of direct air capture (DAC) technology argue that it is costly and could divert attention and resources away from efforts to reduce emissions at their source.
Climeworks has not disclosed the specific cost per ton of carbon dioxide removal at the Mammoth plant.
However, the company aims to drive down the cost of DAC technology to $400-600 per ton by 2030 and further to $200-350 per ton by 2040.
This cost reduction is crucial for making DAC more financially viable and scalable in the fight against climate change.
