It was the second machine they built that attracted global attention. In May this year, on the flat plains of an Icelandic geothermal reserve, a gigantic vacuum cleaner designed to suck planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the sky was switched on. Described as a carbon-sucking vacuum cleaner, the machine named Mammoth was launched in May.
The machine, called Mammoth, would not be entirely out of place on a Mad Max set. It will soon start extracting up to 36,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere a year to be fossilised, locking it safely and permanently underground. Mammoth is ten times larger than the previous machine made by the Swiss firm behind the project, Climeworks, but it will soon be dwarfed by newer carbon-capture machines under construction in the United States, Norway, Kenya and Oman.
Climeworks plans for expansion are staggering. As wind and solar electricity floods the market, the company plans to harness the cheap, clean energy to power its machines to suck in millions of tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030 and reach a billion-tonne annual capacity by 2050. Each of those tonnes might become valuable commodities in a carbon trading economy one day.
The company’s climate policy chief, Oscar Schily, is an evangelist for the cause. He is in Australia this week for a conference and to begin talks with state and federal government officials over a possible expansion here. Set in Iceland’s geothermal fields, Mammoth uses clean energy to scrub the air.
Climate change wil.
