The world’s largest direct-air-capture (DAC) facility has just gone live in Iceland and will demonstrate whether the controversial CO₂ removal technology works at scale.

The project is being run by Swiss company Climeworks, one of many DAC outfits to have attracted funding, and involves mounting solid amine-containing compounds in containers to remove up to 36,000 metric tons (t) of carbon dioxide from the air each year. The captured CO₂ is dissolved in water and pumped underground, where it reacts with basalt rock to form a solid carbonate material.

Jan Wurzbacher,  co-CEO and cofounder of Climeworks  says society needs to remove about 10 billion t of CO₂ from the air annually by 2050 to help prevent runaway climate change. While climatologists agree on the need to remove billions of metric tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere annually by 2050, some DAC critics say it would be more cost effective to invest in renewable energy in the first instance and thus prevent CO₂ emissions altogether.