Earth911’s Mitch Ratcliffe talks with Daniel Eggers, chief commercial officer at Climeworks, a Zurich, Switzerland-based carbon capture company. Climeworks launched one of the first commercial CO2 projects in the world, the geothermal-powered Orca project in Hellisheidi, Iceland, and has 13 other locations under development. Daniel explains the power and geological requirements for storing CO2 in the ground, where it forms carbonate minerals — when turned to rock, the CO2 stays in the ground virtually forever. The Hellisheidi plant will sequester 4,000 tons of CO2 annually — and you can support the project by subscribing to monthly sequestration services that range from $8 to $55 a month.
We also dig into the future of carbon capture, when CO2 will provide the raw materials for fuels and advanced materials, among other things. Daniel shares a vision of a circular economy for carbon that mines the air to keep global CO2 levels falling toward pre-industrial levels over the next 50 to 100 years. In the long run, carbon capture technology could provide a global air conditioning system of sorts that keeps CO2 levels below 300 ppm, the environmental sweet spot for our species and the planet’s ecosystems. He suggests that reforestation and other natural solutions are essential, and that technology can be useful as a tool to manage CO2 emissions that remain.
Learn more about Climeworks and its personal carbon sequestration subscriptions at climeworks.com.
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This podcast was originally aired on May 31, 2021.