Heroes
700 meters below Iceland, a company may have found a solution to the world's climate woes.
10.13.17
Back in May, Swiss start-up Climeworks unveiled a massive machine that sucks carbon dioxide out of the sky.
The idea? To not just slow climate change, but reverse it.
<p>The devise traps carbon dioxide, CO2, on a plastic sheet covered with amines — chemicals that absorb the gas. </p><p>Once stripped from the atmosphere, however, the lassoed carbon doesn't just go away. The company was faced with a challenge: where to store the planet-warming emissions so they don't escape and continue to slowly cook us all.</p><h2>Months later, thousands of miles away, in a town in the southwestern corner of Iceland, Climeworks may have found its solution — one nearly as old as the Earth itself.</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUzMjA4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MjEwNzQyMn0.wBNUV52_-7pGfkQt1zPW4Hjkwrgx74Slq9RWgV-ffgI/img.jpg?width=980" id="99e04" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7f1d87464f801bd3702827bffbae9374" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Bingo. Photo by Sandra O. Snaebjornsdottir.</small></p><h2>Rocks. </h2><p>Climeworks has begun burying the carbon it traps 700 meters underground, where it naturally combines with the island nation's indigenous volcanic rock. </p><p>"Our plan is to offer carbon removal to individuals, corporates and organizations as a means to reverse their non-avoidable carbon emissions," Christoph Gebald, founder and CEO of Climeworks, said in a news release.</p><p>The carbon-burying, rock-injecting technology was developed by CarbFix, a research project led by Reykjavik Energy to develop <a href="https://www.or.is/carbfix" target="_blank">novel, sustainable storage methods for the gas</a>.</p><h2>The project is backed by the EU and is currently in testing to evaluate how weather impacts the process.</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUzMjA4NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDU3Njg4MX0.-On82tsu_J6cwWsklInMt27Pp_3IW5Yp4K1UTvgshzo/img.jpg?width=980" id="10d3b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="14b9ba015e3edfcc9d4327e5adc291b3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Photo by Climeworks.</small></p><p>The module is attached to a local geothermal power plant to capture ambient CO2 produced by the energy generating facility. </p><h2>The United States of America, meanwhile, is kicking a somewhat ... different plan into gear.</h2><p>The plan involves yanking as many rocks as possible out of the ground to put their carbon back into the sky. </p><p>On Oct. 9, EPA chief Scott Pruitt announced the Trump administration's decision to repeal the Clean Power Plan, which requires <a href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2017/10/up-smoke-0" target="_blank">energy generating plants to cut emissions back to 2005 levels in the next 13 years</a>. A recent Energy Department proposal aims to subsidize <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-coal-nuclear-energy-20171011-story.html" target="_blank">coal-fired plants at the expense of cleaner alternatives</a>. </p><h2>It remains to be seen whether Climeworks' technology can be scaled up to a difference-making degree. </h2><p>Sucking carbon dioxide out of the sky <a href="https://qz.com/1100221/the-worlds-first-negative-emissions-plant-has-opened-in-iceland-turning-carbon-dioxide-into-stone/?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">turns out to be pretty expensive</a>. The initial pilot program sold its trapped carbon to a local greenhouse, a model which may or may not be reproducible globally.</p><h2>But trying to find a solution is better than trying to create more problems.</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUzMjA4Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMzE4MTE4NX0.ymXvaa9YY_A0pkuiYuqIZXXtVzssYx3K2mOQ8tYb0ZA/img.jpg?width=980" id="e1f26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e57b6dade019fc85a1e4dce9c3f66678" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Photo by Climeworks/Zev Starr-Tambor.</small></p><p>The next step, according to Gebald, is to bring the technology to "numerous other regions which have similar rock formations."</p><p>Perhaps these 21st century carbon bounty hunters may be interested in checking out some of our <a href="https://www.nps.gov/depo/index.htm" target="_blank">sweet basalt action</a>?</p><p>Asking for a friend.</p>
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