TED Talks Daily The massive machines cleaning Earth's atmosphere | Jan Wurzbacher
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Feb 21, 2023 
Jan Wurzbacher, a climate entrepreneur and leader at Climeworks, discusses the groundbreaking Orca plant in Iceland, the first large-scale facility to capture carbon dioxide directly from the air. He emphasizes the urgent need for innovative technologies to combat climate change, likening this moment to the early days of smartphones. Wurzbacher shares insights on combining natural methods with technological solutions for effective carbon removal and unveils a bold project called 'Mammoth' aimed at reducing emissions significantly.
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Orca Plant
- Jan Wurzbacher showcased "Orca", the first large-scale direct air capture plant in Iceland.
- It's built by Climeworks and removes over 4,000 tons of CO2 yearly.
Orca's Cost and Capacity
- Orca cost over $10 million and extracts about 10 tons of CO2 daily.
- While seemingly expensive, the focus is on demonstrating feasibility, not cost-effectiveness initially.
CO2 Concentration Challenge
- Capturing CO2 is challenging due to its low concentration (420 ppm) in the air.
- Filtering vast amounts of air, equivalent to 800 Olympic pools, is needed for every ton of CO2.