This Machine Sucks CO2 from the Air to Help Fight Climate Change

If you’re worried about climate change in the wake of recent events, let this be some good news: a startup in Switzerland has created a giant machine that can literally suck carbon dioxide out of the air.

Climeworks just recently unveiled its first capture plant, which it calls “the world’s first commercially operational plant capturing CO2 from the atmosphere.” The facility officially opened on May 31. The Zurich-based plant can reportedly pull nearly 900 tons of carbon from the air in a given year, according to Climeworks. And the plant is only one part of the company’s larger goal of capturing one percent of global emissions worldwide by 2025.

The plant works by pulling in air via stacks of small fans and collecting the carbon dioxide in sponge-like filters. Once the filters are at capacity, which takes about two to three hours, they’re heated up to release pure CO2 — and the process can be repeated over and over again. Of course, since all that CO2 needs to go somewhere, Climeworks plans to sell the carbon dioxide to companies who need it — such as beverage companies who can use it to carbonate their products. The plant’s first customer is a local greenhouse who plans on using the CO2 to help their produce grow faster, according to Fast Company. Any excess carbon can simply be buried underground.

The method can’t completely solve climate change, however — that would involve radical shifts in the way we live. By middle of the century, Climeworks thinks we’ll need hundreds of thousands of these plants to make any noticeable difference. But the method is innovative and forward-thinking, and combined with the rise of sustainable energy and environmentally conscious policies and practices, could certainly help. And, perhaps most of all, it’s a small glimmer of hope that humanity will, one day, achieve a more sustainable future.

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