A world first - This giant machine sucks CO2 directly from air

Developers say the Climeworks AG facility opened near Zurich last week can capture about 900 tons of CO2 from the air each year.

 For the first time in the world, Climeworks, a Swiss company, has developed a commercial plant that captures atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the air and then uses it to grow vegetables.

Developers say the Climeworks AG facility opened near Zurich last week can capture about 900 tons of CO2 from the air each year - equivalent to the amount that is emitted by 200 cars.

How the Climeworks carbon sucking plant woks?

The plant captures CO2 from the air with a filter. During the capture process, CO2 is chemically deposited on the filter surface. When the filter is saturated, the CO2 is then isolated at a temperature of about 100 degrees Celsius. The captured CO2 gas is then sent through an underground pipeline to a greenhouse to help grow vegetables, like cucumbers and tomatoes.

The plant is a historic step for negative emissions technology - earmarked by the Paris climate agreement as being vital in the quest to limit a global temperature rise of 2 °C.

"Highly scalable negative emission technologies are crucial if we are to stay below the 2-degree target [for global temperature rise] of the international community," Christoph Gebald, co-founder and managing director of Climeworks, was quoted as saying to Science, referring to the climate change threshold set by the Paris climate deal.

The plant is being seen as a historic step for negative emissions technology - earmarked by the Paris climate agreement as being vital in the quest to limit a global temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius.

Gebald, along with Jan Wurzbacher, established Climeworks in 2009 after working on air capture during postgraduate studies in Zurich.