Iceland review - 2019, Qupperneq 103

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Iceland Review
it’s like a sponge. You can store a huge amount of CO2
in each square metre. If we were to use all of the water
we re-inject to pump down CO2 in this area alone, we
could pump down a million tonnes ,” Sandra enthuses.
Basalt is not only plentiful in Iceland, it’s one of the
most common types of rock around the world. “In the-
ory we could bind all the CO2 in the world in basalt.”
On neutral ground
Since 2014, CarbFix has been running smoothly,
sequestering and fixating about a third of the carbon
dioxide that Hellisheiði power station produces. The
next goal, Sandra says, is upping that proportion to
make the power station completely carbon neutral. It’s
a goal which could happen within the next few years.
The CarbFix project itself is in constant development.
“We’re trying to find ways to increase the functionality
of this method,” Sandra tells us. “We are experiment-
ing now with using seawater to pump the carbon down.
The sea floor is basalt and there is a lot of basalt along
coastlines. And in places where there maybe isn’t a lot
of fresh water that could be used, it would be possible
to use seawater instead. The first experiments are
very promising.”
In a European project for zero-emission geother-
mal energy called GECO, the CarbFix team is also
looking at different types of rock from Turkey, Italy,
and Germany, to see if it could be used to fixate carbon
where basalt is not available. “We’re always trying to
make the process more efficient. Hopefully it will be
used as widely as possible,” Sandra says.
Scaling up
It’s clear that capturing carbon dioxide directly from
an emissions source is a positive environmental step.
Yet, the reader may wonder, what about emissions that
are released directly into the atmosphere, like those
from aviation or cars? CarbFix is addressing those
emissions in an EU-funded project in co-operation
with Swiss company Climeworks. A small white device
on Hellisheiði known as “The Arctic Fox” uses tech-
nology developed by Climeworks to capture carbon
dioxide directly from the atmosphere. The fox has the
capacity to capture about 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide
per year. That may seem like a small number com-
pared to what the power station is sequestering from
its turbines, but the device’s inventors are currently in
negotiations to scale up the operations at Hellisheiði.
In Switzerland, CO2 captured using Climeworks’
technology has been put to use in greenhouses and in
making carbonated beverages for Coca Cola. “These
kinds of projects are part of the process of getting
more experience with the tools and developing them
further,” Sandra explains.
At the moment, Climeworks’ direct air capture
technology requires a significant amount of energy
and comes with a fairly high price tag. According to
a New York Times article published earlier this year,
it costs the company between $500-600 (€440-530)
to remove a single tonne of carbon from the air. Yet,
Sandra says, it’s crucial to support such technologies
in their development. “It’s important that as many
small projects as possible have the chance to develop
and as much experience is gained in as little time as
possible, that’s what we need in order to scale up.”
We have the answers
The cost of sequestering Hellisheiði’s emissions is
much lower than that of Climeworks’ direct air capture
devices. “Here we pay $25 [ISK 3,100/€22] per tonne
“WE CAN’T SOLVE GLOBAL WARMING
WITHOUT PAYING A PRICE.
BUT IT’S NOT INSURMOUNTABLE.”
Sandra Ósk
Snæbjörnsdóttir