The Massive Machines Removing Carbon from Earth's Atmosphere | Jan Wurzbacher | TED

To restrain global warming, we know we need to drastically reduce pollution. The very next step after that: using both natural and technological solutions to trap as much excess carbon dioxide from the air as possible. Enter Orca, the world's first large-scale direct air capture and storage plant, built in Iceland by the team at Climeworks, led by climate entrepreneur Jan Wurzbacher. This plant is capable of removing 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year. With affordability and scalability in mind, Wurzbacher shares his vision for what comes after Orca, the future of carbon capture tech -- and why these innovations are crucial to stop climate change.

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[bruceb]

Isn't it just incredibly insane that we allow companies to dump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for free and then we pay other companies hundreds of dollars per tonne to remove it?

[akash]

How much electricity it requires to run for one day ?
What is the carbon footprint of the electricity used ?

[joesackbaron]

The irony of it being called a 'plant': makes you realise just how amazing 'real' plants are. What have we done.

[WPGinfo]

The simplest and most effective way to store carbon has been around since the beginning of times: TREES
Trees store carbon, retain water, keep soil in place esp. on slopes, provide shade == cool the ground down, provide food, provide building materials for humans and animals; It is extremely low-maintenance etc.
Instead of building machines to 'fix' the carbon problem, plant trees 1.000.000 trees; Choose 'local varieties', mix them up. Plant them wherever you can. Look after them for ~5 years. After that they can look after themselves for the next 200 years. If after 1.000.000 trees planted, we humans are still around... plant another 1.000.000 trees.

If you want to 'build machines', build machines that can plant 1.00.00 trees; They need to be simple, cheap and available for free...
KISS: let mother nature do what she does best: Look after us all.

[jessicahogan]

It would be cool if they could downsize the filters and place them over exhaust pipes for commercial producers of CO2, or even cars. That way the CO2 would be more concentrated and they wouldn't require filtration of so much air.

[warpedbeyondhelp]

Interesting, we’ve had these machines for millions of years. They are called plants seems like it would be much cheaper just to stop chopping down all the trees.

[jsebastianfilms]

Let's pose some questions; how much energy would it take to operate this plant? You said it "could" be powered by renewables, Is it now powered by rewnewables? Is that sustainable? I have hard time believing we don't have the land to plants trees, the best carbon capture. We have millions of hectares of savannas and deserts that can be reforested. Some TED talks have had speakers discuss this. So what is more cost effective solution? Reforestation or making machines that would be powered by large land areas of solar panels covering the very soil that would have plants to capture the carbon?

[shyermine]

this is the perfect moment to watch the movie the Lorax

[bers]

I wondered why this CO2-absorbing board was not placed on the chimneys that emit exhaust gases, which would also save the cost of fans

[Nicolas_Arencibia]

i wonder how i didin´t know about these machines until now. Furthermore, this TedTalk only has 100k even though he is talking about an incredible improvement for the whole society. People are slept.

[HomesteadEngineering]

If you consider what it took to build (steel concreate etc.) and what it takes to run (electricity from coal), what is your net carbon footprint as of today? I get that it will get better but like perpetual motion, my gut feeling is your best case scenario is break even.

[HobbesHobbiton]

Instead of building machines to suck up carbon, we could just.. Ya know, _plant some fucking trees_

[JW-lhev]

Forgive my ignorance. How many tons of COs and other GHG would be produced in order to construct the Orca?

[denisevanvilsteren]

Great timing! I've been looking for ways to contribute (even on a personal scale) to the fight against climate change. I'll research more but I like what I hear, go science! 👏

[importantname]

we are building machines because we are destroying our planets natural mechanisms for removing carbon - lol

[ArtemAleksashkin]

Can they make machine that removes Vinyl chloride from air and water?

[aquila]

The basalt with the CO2 is fascinating.

[donaldauguston]

I would also like to know how LOUD the system is. Is it practical to build in cities like Los Angeles or Pittsburgh where there are homes as well as factories/cars emitting CO2?

[krox]

The electricity required for these machines to run will create more carbon than removal

[amu]

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