Mammoth Carbon Capture Facility: World’s Largest Vacuum To Suck Greenhouse Gas From Atmosphere Turns On For the First Time

A groundbreaking development in the fight against climate change has just occurred with the commencement of the operations of the world's largest carbon capture facility.

World's Largest Vacuum

On May 8, startup Swiss company Cimeworks opened a giant vacuum called Mammoth which was designed to suck planet-heating pollution out of the Earth's atmosphere. It is the second commercial direct air capture plant opened by the company in Iceland, about ten times bigger than its predecessor, Orca, which began operating in 2021.

At its total capacity, the facility can remove 36,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually. This is equivalent to taking around 7,800 gas-powered cars off the road for a year. While Climeworks did not give an exact cost for each ton of removed carbon, it claims that it is closer to $1,000 a ton. The cost of $75 a ton is a key threshold for making the technology viable and affordable.

According to Climeworks co-founder Jan Wurzbacher, the new plant is a vital step in the fight against climate change, as it will increase equipment size to capture carbon pollution. However, he cautioned that a tiny fraction of what is needed is still needed.

Climewoks started constructing Mammoth in June 2022, claiming it to be the largest such plant in the world. It has a modular design with space for 72 collector containers, which enable units to be stacked up and moved around the plant. There are 12 of these in place, with more due to be added over the next few months.

According to Climeworks, it plans to transport the carbon underground, where it will be locked permanently as it is naturally transformed into stone. For this sequestration process, Climeworks collaborates with the Icelandic company Carbfix. The entire process will be fueled by Iceland's abundant, clean geothermal energy.

The plant is located on a dormant volcano, which was chosen for its proximity to the Hellisheidi geothermal energy plant. It is used to power the fans and heat chemical filters of the facility to extract carbon dioxide with water vapor.

After extraction, the captured carbon dioxide is separated from the steam, compressed, and dissolved in water before being pumped 2,300 feet (701 meters) underground into volcanic basalt.

What is Direct Air Capture?

Direct air capture refers to a technology designed to suck air and strip out the carbon dioxide using chemicals. The CO2 can then be injected underground, reused, or transformed into solid materials.

Climate solutions such as direct air capture have recently gained more attention from governments and private sectors as humanity continues to burn fossil fuels for different purposes. In 2023, the concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached a record high. As the Earth continues to heat up, experts suggest we need to find ways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere aside from cutting fossil fuels.

However, removal techniques such as direct air capture remain controversial. They have been judged as expensive, energy-demanding, and unproven at scale. Some climate advocates even argue that this technology can distract from policies to cut fossil fuels.

Generally, all the carbon removal equipment on the planet can only remove around 0.01 million metric tons of carbon annually. According to the International Energy Agency, this is a far cry from the 70 million tons a year that need to be achieved by 2030 to meet global climate goals.