Direct capture of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is being pursued with increasingly large turbines that pull CO2 from the air. This approach, once met with skepticism from many experts, is gaining traction as more machines around the world begin delivering tangible results. Iceland hosts a new station from a leading industry innovator that underscores this momentum.
Climeworks, established in 2009 in Switzerland, continues to push the technology of direct air capture with the goal of reducing greenhouse gases. What might have seemed like a distant possibility is now becoming a practical reality, as Climeworks improves the efficiency of its carbon dioxide collectors. A new Icelandic facility represents a milestone that signals the potential for scale and performance never seen before.
Orca was the world’s largest direct air capture facility until September 2021. It has the capacity to remove about 4,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, roughly equivalent to the emissions of 790 cars.
However, a newer and more powerful configuration is on the way. A machine named Mammoth is designed to surpass Orca in capacity and efficiency, with operation anticipated within a few months. Mammoth is expected to capture about nine times more CO2 than Orca, yet even this level represents only a fraction of the output projected for upcoming facilities currently in the design phase. The company aims to reach multi-megaton-scale capture by 2030 and move toward gigaton-scale impact by 2050.
Mammoth is already under construction
Mammoth is advancing rapidly. Publicly available visuals show that substantial progress is being made. The main building is finished, and the site will soon be surrounded by extensive arrays of turbines designed to extract CO2 from the air. This facility emphasizes the shift toward large-scale carbon removal using direct air capture technology.
Images depict the project as a serious effort. The next phase involves expanding the capture capacity and integrating energy-efficient systems to sustain operations without adding new emissions.
In the Mammoth facility, captured CO2 will undergo processing before being stored underground. The gas is purified and concentrated, then mineralized by interaction with minerals in the underground environment, ultimately turning into solid rock through mineralization. This storage pathway aims to prevent CO2 from reentering the atmosphere.
If Orca has eight CO2 collectors, Mammoth will feature seventy-two. This increase illustrates the scalability that the developers are pursuing as they move from thousands of tons per year toward tens of thousands and beyond.
New facilities demonstrate that the system can scale to larger and larger sizes as deployment expands, shifting from preliminary hundreds or thousands of tons per year to more ambitious capacity levels.
There are approximately 20 facilities worldwide
According to the International Energy Agency, roughly twenty direct air capture plants operate globally today. Yet, their cumulative impact on reducing atmospheric CO2 remains limited. While these plants contribute to emissions reduction, they do not constitute a comprehensive solution to greenhouse gases from human activity.
To make a meaningful environmental impact, the industry would need a large number of air capture facilities capable of removing tens of millions of tons of CO2 annually. Presently, the total from the existing installations and Mammoth projects accounts for only a small fraction of that scale.
Even with rapid technological progress, the deployment of direct air capture is not a panacea. It is one part of a broader set of actions needed to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The approach benefits from being powered by renewable energy, which helps to minimize additional emissions during operation and aligns with broader climate strategies rather than undermining them.
To address greenhouse gases effectively, a combination of technologies and natural solutions will be necessary. The Mammoth project, like Orca before it, illustrates how innovation can drive climate action while highlighting the scale and energy requirements involved in truly meaningful removal at a planetary level.
Notes on the industry indicate ongoing development and the potential for future breakthroughs to accelerate the pace of removal while ensuring environmental integrity. Independent assessments emphasize that widespread impact will depend on continued investment, policy support, and the availability of low-carbon energy to power these facilities.