New factory sucks up to carbon
Politicians dither while humanity pumps too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, warming the planet by 1.5°C by the end of this century. So scientists are looking for ways to suck carbon out of the atmosphere.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change says zero industrial carbon can go into the atmosphere by 2050.
This has seemed a target that could not be met, but earlier this month Climeworks in Switzerland, founded by two students eight years ago, switched on the first commercial plant that takes carbon out of the atmosphere.
The process itself is relatively simple: air is sucked into large containers, packed with membranes. Carbon dioxide in the air sticks to these when it comes into contact with them, staying behind after the air is pumped out. The only other byproduct is water.
The carbon is sold to a nearby vegetable farm. Because carbon helps plants to grow, the yield on aubergines, cucumbers and tomatoes in its greenhouses is expected to increase by 30%.
Other companies working on the same sort of technology have partnered with soda companies. Carbon dioxide gives cooldrinks their fizz and they currently have to get it from factories that specifically create carbon dioxide.
The Climeworks plant means a dangerous source of waste can be turned into a useful product.
But the cost of doing that is still nearly prohibitive. Climeworks’ $4-million plant will remove 900 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from the atmosphere (South Africa as a whole emits 450-million tonnes a year). At the moment, that process costs the company $600 a tonne.
It plans to reduce this to $200 a tonne within five years, and eventually to $100 a tonne. This will come about as the company scales up its operations. Climeworks’ grand plan is to remove 1% of global carbon emissions by 2025.
To do that, it will need to use 675 terawatt hours of electricity. SubSaharan Africa consumes 400 terawatt hours a year and Germany just over 600 terawatt hours a year.
Besides cost, this is the big problem with the technology. Most energy around the world is still produced by burning fossil fuels, so carbon will be emitted by power plants that suck carbon out of the atmosphere. Climeworks’ solution has been to piggyback on a waste incinerator. This supplies the factory with its energy.
Climeworks and similar companies provide an insight into industry of the future, when modular factories would be built as part of other industries to ensure they do not send carbon into the atmosphere.
Thanks to the need for the technology, and the need by factories to be more efficient and pollute less, Climeworks’ plant will be a stepping stone. It has proven that carbon can be sucked out of the atmosphere and turned into something useful.
The first step is always the hardest. A solution might just have been found that will dramatically lower carbon emissions and lessen the impact of climate change.