In order to achieve the 2-degree target, global carbon dioxide emissions must be drastically reduced and reduced to zero by the middle of the century. To achieve this, Climeworks has built the world’s first plant that filters CO₂ directly from the atmosphere. This allows the CO₂ to be fossilized or sold and reused for various purposes. Climeworks’ technology is one of the few scalable solutions for removing carbon dioxide directly from the air. Valentin Gutknecht, Marketing Manager at Climeworks, explains the vision of the ETH spin-off in the video.
New, innovative solutions are needed to reduce the proportion of greenhouse gases caused by human activity and thus curb the advance of global warming. One way is to close the carbon cycle by capturing the greenhouse gas from the air and storing it safely or reusing it.
With Vision 1/25, Climeworks aims to capture 1% of global CO₂ emissions by 2025.
Which solution approach has the company chosen?
Climeworks has developed a new technology that aims to make a significant contribution to reducing CO₂ in the air. This extracts atmospheric carbon dioxide from the air using filter systems: the filters draw in the air and bind the carbon dioxide it contains through a chemical process.
As soon as the filters are saturated with carbon dioxide, this is dissolved at a temperature of approx. 100 degrees Celsius. This releases high-purity CO₂. This can be used, for example, in greenhouses to increase plant growth. The filters can then be reused for other circuits.
Another, complementary solution is the filtering of CO₂ from concentrated sources. Other suppliers have developed technologies for this purpose, including those that directly capture exhaust gas from power plants.
Climeworks is convinced that such alternative solutions are a good approach, but not sufficient to achieve the global climate goals. They are convinced that not only newly released CO₂, but also CO₂ that is already in the air must be bound.
What is the business model of Climeworks?
The filtered CO₂ can be sold and reused in production processes that require CO₂, for example. In addition to greenhouses, the production of carbonated beverages and synthetic fuels are just two examples. The filtered CO₂ can also be used to manufacture plastic products that are traditionally produced using fossil fuels.
Finally, Climeworks is working on storing large quantities of filtered carbon dioxide safely and permanently in the ground. The company built the first plant for this purpose in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2017. For permanent storage on a large scale, financing models such as state or private-sector support, CO₂ taxes or CO₂ compensation trading would most likely have to be used.
