How I Built This with Guy Raz HIBT Lab! Climeworks: Jan Wurzbacher
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Jun 30, 2022 
Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and CEO of Climeworks, leads the charge in carbon capture technology. He shares his journey from a mechanical engineer in Hamburg to building the world's largest direct air capture facility. Jan dives into scaling challenges and the financial needs to make carbon capture viable. He discusses the Orca plant in Iceland, showcasing its innovative use of geothermal energy. Wurzbacher also emphasizes the potential of major corporations in offsetting carbon and the optimistic belief in technology's role to reverse climate change.
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Founding Dream
- Jan Wurzbacher and Christoph Gebald met during their first days at university.
- They quickly bonded over their shared dream of starting a company together.
DAC Challenge
- Direct air capture (DAC) filters CO2 from the air, similar to finding one specific person in a crowd of 2,500.
- This process requires filtering vast volumes of air to capture significant amounts of CO2.
Necessity of Carbon Removal
- Reducing emissions is insufficient; active CO2 removal is crucial to meet climate goals.
- While planting trees helps, it requires vast land, making technological solutions like DAC more efficient.