One of the top concerns since the past few decades, an inevitability of uncontrolled corporate activities in every part of the world, is the high levels of Carbon Dioxide emissions. It is well known that this contributes to global warming, causing historical levels of damage to the ecosystems on the planet. Saving the environment is in the hands of people, as it has been subjected to too much pressure to be able to recover itself. Orca, a carbon capture plant is crucially helping the cause with its procedure of removing CO2 from the environment.
With the multiple COP discussions happening across the globe in addition to treaties like The Paris Agreement, decarbonisation, curbing emissions and Net Zero Goals have come to be discussed more widely. Every State is committing to saving the environment, coming up with national schemes and inventions to carry out their ‘common but differentiated responsibilities.’ A joint venture with Carbfix, Orca has been constructed by Climeworks in Iceland. It started the sequestration in 2021, claiming to be the world’s first and largest direct air capture and storage plant. It uses fans to pull in air which is passed through a filter. Through heat, the CO2 is released and mixed with water, which is then pushed under the ground, using Carbfix’s technology, which “imitates and accelerates these natural processes, where carbon dioxide is dissolved in water and interacts with reactive rock formations, such as basalts, to form stable minerals providing a permanent and safe carbon sink.” The facility boasts of an air collection of 4,000 tonnes per year, the number equal to the emissions by almost 870 cars. Steps to saving the environment has been taken up a notch by Climeworks, as the plant entirely runs on the geothermal energy from ON Power.
Carbon Capture was used to mitigate CO2 levels effectively for the first time in 1972, in Texas. After more than two decades, an integrated model was launched in Norway, with a storage unit attached to the carbon capture plant, known to be the Sleipner. This technology is also helpful in reducing other pollutants from the environment, scholars say, like sulfur and nitrogen oxides. Storing CO2 in layers of rocks that previously contained oil has made the technology so sophisticated, making oil extraction easier in the process. The gas then remains sealed in the sub-surface. As of International Energy Agency’s data, multiple plants like these are capturing above 30 million tonnes of CO2, most of them in North America. Although this is way less than what is needed to achieve the Paris Agreement Target for 2040, new projects like Orca being successfully run provides the much needed encouragement and hope for greater work towards the planet.
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