It’s still an expensive technology, but the company that owns the plant expects this to change in the coming years. Photo: AFP.
Orca (energy, in Icelandic) is a state-of-the-art plant in the fight against carbon dioxide emissions that accelerate climate change. Installed at the foot of a volcano in Iceland, it works with geothermal energy and sequesters carbon dioxide2 From the air, it captures them and stores them as rocks in the ground.
“The carbon dioxide that we’re going to inject into the ground, we’re going to inject into this type of rock: basalt rock. It’s a very porous rock that acts like a sponge…CO2 gets into the rock, releases minerals, and forms the mineral calcite.
“What we will form in the Earth’s interior will look more like this: all the white dots are the mineral calcite, that is, carbon dioxide that has turned into rocks,” explained Thomas Ratwis, chief engineer of Orca.
According to the Swiss company, ClimeWorks, which owns the plant, Orca can capture about 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide2 every year.
At the moment, it is very expensive. With current technology, each ton of carbon turned into stone costs around €2,500, but ClimeWorks hopes to split the bill by 15 in the next few years and double the construction of carbon dioxide extraction plants.2 To have an effect in the fight against global warming.
In the context of COP26, which took place in Glasgow these days, the annual Global Carbon Budge Study was released, according to which carbon dioxide emissions2 It will be close to pre-pandemic levels this year and a recovery in 2022 is not ruled out.
The report notes that “a 4.9% increase this year is expected” globally, specifically in the European Union by 7.6%.
According to the study authors, this “reinforces the need for immediate global action on climate change.”
“I hope that countries will take this factual pigeon seriously and offer a firm and detailed proposal on what they will do to deal with climate change, including the rules for controlling transparency in the agreement, as well as an agreement between the parties,” said Corinne Le Kerry, Royal Society Research Professor in the College of Science. Environmental at the University of East Anglia, is addressing issues such as tree planting, electrification of transportation, the transition to electric vehicles and the disposal of coal.
Under COP26, the Global Alliance for Coal Abandonment gained 28 new members, including some countries that use it frequently. The alliance now includes 165 countries, cities, regions, companies and enterprises.
However, some of the world’s most coal-dependent countries have not joined this initiative.
The signatories committed themselves to ending all investments in a new generation of coal energy domestically and internationally. Also, to reach its complete elimination by 2030 in OECD countries and by 2040 in the rest of the world.
Ten of the world’s most protected forests emit the most carbon dioxide2 They suck from them, warns UNESCO
carbon dioxide emissions2 On track to reach an all-time high in 2023
World leaders warn that clean energy for all is the answer to climate change and we must start now
The report shows that some effects of climate change are irreversible
(with information from euronews)
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