TED Tech

Meet the massive machines removing carbon from Earth's atmosphere | Jan Wurzbacher

4 snips
May 5, 2023
Ask episode
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
ANECDOTE

Jan's Orca Carbon Capture Story

  • Jan Wurzbacher describes Orca, a $10 million machine capturing over 10 tons of CO2 daily from ambient air.
  • He compares its early stage to the first smartphone: clumsy and costly but transformative technology.
INSIGHT

Carbon Capture Technical Challenges

  • Atmospheric CO2 concentration is low at 420 ppm, requiring filtering huge volumes of air to capture carbon.
  • Finding durable, high-performance sorbent materials for CO2 capture in the field is technically challenging.
INSIGHT

Tech Complements Nature for Carbon

  • Nature-based carbon sinks like forests and oceans are vital but insufficient due to space and growth time constraints.
  • Large-scale technology-based carbon removal must complement natural methods to meet climate goals.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app