The World's Largest Carbon Capture Factory Begins To Operate

Mammoth factory to capture carbon (doc. Climeworks).

JAKARTA Climeworks, a Swiss carbon-releasing startup, has opened its newest factory in Iceland. The plant, called Mammoth, is the largest carbon capture plant in the world.

Mammoth surpassed the record held by Orca, another factory owned by Climeworks. Orca is capable of capturing about 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide or CO2 per year. However, Mammoth was able to capture up to 10 times the Orca record.

According to an Engadget report, the new plant is equipped with 72 fans that can attract 36,000 tons of CO2. All of the carbon dioxide captured will not be recycled, but stored underground and left trapped under the rock.

Mammoth is located near Hellisheidi, Earth's heat power plant. The plant was deliberately placed there, around an inactive volcano, to separate carbon dioxide from vapor, then place CO2 in an underground volcanic basal.

Both Mammoth and Orca, both are made to eliminate carbon up to 16 billion tons of CO2 per year. The hope is that these two factories can help the world in achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

Although this factory is the largest carbon catcher facility in the world, the impact of the factory is very small. The number of CO2 arrests made by Mammoth only reduces 0.0006 percent of the number expected annually.

Therefore, the founder of Climeworks, Jan Wurzbacher, hopes that other companies can do the same, namely establishing a carbon capture plant. The more companies are moved, the greater the amount of carbon will decrease.