Tapping into a new resource: CO2 from air

Your first commercial pilot plant was installed in Hinwil on the roof of a waste recovery facility. Why there? Is there a higher CO₂ concentration in the air?

It is not the CO₂ from the waste recovery facility we are interested in but the waste heat. Our modules filter CO₂ from air very efficiently. At the Hinwil plant, it is 900 tons per year. The recovery process of our filters needs energy. We seek out places where we can operate our plants with either sustainable energy sources or piggyback on existing heat sources such as the waste recovery plant in Hinwil.

What happens to the CO₂ when it is released from the filters?

Climeworks builds plants for consumers of CO₂. In Hinwil, the company Gebrüder Meier Primanatura AG operates a greenhouse and uses the CO₂ to fertilize their plants. Other potential users of CO₂ are producers of carbonated beverages or synthetic fuels. Ideally the CO₂ is processed right away where it is collected in order to avoid the construction and operation of big storage facilities or transportation issues.

Who operates the Climeworks plants?

We operate the plant in Hinwil, which is a demo plant and we use it to further optimize our technology. The operation of our modules, however, is fairly simple – there is basically an on/off button. Whoever needs CO₂ can buy their own Climeworks modules and operate them right next to their factory. Climeworks offers a clever solution to produce CO₂ de-centrally wherever and whenever it is needed.

What are your long-term goals?

We want to filter one percent of the annual CO₂ emission by 2025. For the implementation, we have to build 250’000 times Hinwil. This number sounds high, but feasible. The production of our modules is scalable. The market for CO₂ consumers is large. Climate politics work in our favor as global warming is a serious threat to our environment.