Two huge plants in Iceland function like giant vacuum cleaners, sucking in air and stripping out planet-heating carbon air pollution. This much-hyped climate technology is known as direct air seize, and the company behind these vegetation, Switzerland-based Climeworks, is probably its most high-profile proponent.
But a yr after opening an enormous new facility, Climeworks is straining towards robust headwinds. The company introduced this month it might lay off round 20% of its workforce, blaming financial uncertainties and shifting climate policy priorities.
“We’ve always known this journey would be demanding. Today, we find ourselves navigating a challenging time,” Climeworks’ CEOs Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher stated in a statement.
This is especially true of its US ambitions. A brand new direct air seize plant deliberate for Louisiana, which received $50 million in funding from the Biden administration, hangs in the stability as President Donald Trump slashes climate funding.
Climeworks additionally faces mounting criticism for working at solely a fraction of its most capability, and for failing to take away extra climate air pollution than it emits.
The company says these are teething pains inherent in establishing a brand new business from scratch and that it has entered a brand new part of international scale up. “The overall trajectory will be positive as we continue to define the technology,” stated a Climeworks spokesperson.
For critics, nonetheless, these headwinds are proof direct air seize is an costly, shiny distraction from efficient climate motion.
Climeworks, which launched in 2009, is amongst round 140 direct air seize corporations globally, however is one of the most high-profile and finest funded.
In 2021, it opened its Orca plant in Iceland, adopted in 2024 by a second known as Mammoth. These amenities suck in air and extract carbon utilizing chemical compounds in a course of powered by clear, geothermal power.
The carbon can then be reused or injected deep underground the place it will likely be naturally remodeled into stone, locking it up completely. Climeworks makes its cash by promoting credit to corporations to offset their very own climate air pollution.
The enchantment of direct air seize is obvious; to maintain international warming from rising to much more catastrophic ranges means drastically cutting again on planet-heating fossil fuels. But many scientists say the world can even must take away some of the carbon air pollution already in the ambiance. This can be completed naturally, for instance by tree planting, or with technology like direct air seize.
The benefit of direct air seize is that carbon is faraway from the air instantly and “can be measured directly and accurately,” stated Howard Herzog, senior analysis engineer at the MIT Energy Initiative.
But there are huge challenges, he instructed NCS. The focus of carbon dioxide in the ambiance has been taking pictures upward, however nonetheless solely makes up about 0.04%. Herzog compares eradicating carbon straight from the air to needing to seek out 10 crimson marbles in a jar of 25,000 marbles of which 24,990 are blue.
This makes the course of energy-intensive and costly. The technology additionally takes time to scale.
Climeworks hasn’t come anyplace near the full capability of its vegetation. Orca can take away a most of 4,000 tons of carbon a yr, but it surely has by no means captured greater than 1,700 tons in a yr because it opened in 2021. The company says single months have seen a seize price a lot nearer to the most.
The company’s Mammoth plant has a most capability of 36,000 tons a yr however because it opened final yr it has eliminated a complete of 805 tons, a determine which matches right down to 121 tons when taking into consideration the carbon produced constructing and working the vegetation.
“It’s true that both plants are not yet operating at the capacity we originally targeted,” stated the Climeworks spokesperson. “Like all transformative innovations, progress is iterative, and some steps may take longer than anticipated,” they stated.
The company’s potential third plant in Louisiana goals to take away 1 million tons of carbon a yr by 2030, but it surely’s unsure whether or not building will proceed underneath the Trump administration.
A Department of Energy spokesperson stated a department-wide assessment was underway “to ensure all activities follow the law, comply with applicable court orders and align with the Trump administration’s priorities.” The authorities has a mandate “to unleash ‘American Energy Dominance’,” they added.
Direct air seize’s success can even rely upon corporations’ willingness to purchase carbon credit.
Currently corporations are fairly free to “use the atmosphere as a waste dump,” stated Holly Buck, assistant professor of setting and sustainability at the University at Buffalo. “This lack of regulation means there is not yet a strong business case for cleaning this waste up,” she instructed NCS.
Another criticism leveled at Climeworks is its failure to offset its personal climate air pollution. The carbon produced by its company actions, such as workplace house and journey, outweighs the carbon eliminated by its vegetation.
The company says its vegetation already take away extra carbon than they produce and company emissions “will become irrelevant as the size of our plants scales up.”
Some, nonetheless, consider the challenges Climeworks face inform a broader story about direct air seize.
This ought to be a “wake-up call,” stated Lili Fuhr, director of the fossil financial system program at the Center for International Environmental Law. Climeworks’ issues aren’t “outliers,” she instructed NCS, “but reflect persistent technical and economic hurdles faced by the direct air capture industry worldwide.”
“The climate crisis demands real action, not speculative tech that overpromises and underdelivers.” she added.
Some of the Climeworks’ issues are “related to normal first-of-a-kind scaling challenges with emerging complex engineering projects,” Buck stated.
But the technology has a steep path to turning into cheaper and extra environment friendly, particularly with US slashing funding for climate insurance policies, she added. “This kind of policy instability and backtracking on contracts will be terrible for a range of technologies and innovations, not just direct air capture.”
Direct air seize is certainly possible however its onerous, stated MIT’s Buck. Whether it succeeds will rely upon a slew of components together with technological enhancements and creating markets for carbon removals, he stated.
“At this point in time, no one really knows how large a role direct air capture will play in the future.”