Huge Machine Captures CO2 – and Turns It Into Rock

Iceland is home to the largest plant that transforms carbon dioxide into rock using a technology that could become a highly useful tool in the world’s fight against climate change.

Every year, the plant built by two companies – Climeworks from Switzerland and Carbfix from Iceland – will be able to draw 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) out of the air, and according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, this quantity is the equivalent of 870 cars.

To produce such a rock at the plant named Orca – from the Icelandic word “orka” which means “energy” – fans are used to draw air into a collector lined with filter material. Once saturated with CO2, the collector closes and is heated to concentrate the gas and collect it. That gas is then mixed with water and injected into basalt rock where it is mineralized.