The world’s largest factory designed to extract carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, similar to a giant vacuum cleaner, began operations in Iceland on May 8.
Mammoth is the second commercial direct air capture (DAC) facility opened by the Swiss company Climeworks in Iceland, and it is ten times larger than its predecessor, the Orca plant, which started operating in 2021, according to CNN. Direct air capture (DAC) is a technology designed to capture air and filter carbon using chemicals. The captured carbon is then buried underground, reused, or transformed into solid products.
Climeworks plans to transport the carbon underground, where it will naturally convert into stone. They are collaborating with the Icelandic company Carbfix for this capture process. The entire operation is powered by Iceland’s clean and abundant geothermal energy.
Climeworks’ Mammoth plant in Hellisheiði, Iceland began operations on May 8. (Photo: Oli Haukur Myrdal/Climeworks).
New generation climate solutions like DAC are attracting increasing attention from governments and private companies as humanity continues to burn fossil fuels. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2023. As the planet continues to warm, leading to severe consequences for nature and humanity, many scientists believe that the world needs to find ways to remove CO2 from the atmosphere alongside cutting fossil fuel use.
However, CO2 removal technologies like DAC remain controversial. Critics argue that this technology is expensive, energy-intensive, and its effectiveness at scale has yet to be proven. Some climate activists are also concerned that it could distract policymakers from cutting fossil fuels. This technology carries numerous uncertainties and ecological risks, according to Lili Fuhr, director of the fossil economy program at the Center for International Environmental Law.
Climeworks began constructing Mammoth in June 2022, and the company states that it is the largest commercial direct air capture facility in the world. Mammoth features a modular design with space for 72 “collection chambers”, the vacuum parts of the machine that capture CO2 from the air, which can be stacked and moved easily. Currently, 12 of these chambers have been installed, with more to be added in the coming months. Mammoth aims to capture a total of 36,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year when operating at full capacity, equivalent to removing approximately 7,800 gasoline-powered vehicles from the roads each year.
Climeworks has not disclosed the exact cost to remove a ton of CO2, but it has revealed a figure close to $1,000 per ton instead of the $100 per ton threshold, which is crucial for making the technology affordable and viable. As the company scales up the facility and reduces costs, their goal is to achieve $300 – $350 per ton by 2030 and $100 per ton by 2050, according to Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and director of Climeworks.
The new plant represents an important step in the fight against climate change, according to Stuart Haszeldine, professor of CO2 capture and storage at the University of Edinburgh. However, he emphasizes that this is still a small scale compared to the demand. All CO2 removal equipment worldwide can only capture about 0.01 million tons per year, which is far below the target of 70 million tons by 2030 to meet global climate goals, according to the International Energy Agency.
According to Wurzbacher, Mammoth is just the latest phase in the plan to scale up CO2 capture to one million tons per year by 2030 and one billion tons by 2050. The plan includes potential DAC facilities in Kenya and the United States.
