Climeworks Climate Tech is becoming one of the most closely watched names in the global carbon removal industry. The Swiss startup is known for direct air capture, a technology that removes carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and stores it permanently underground or uses it in selected applications.
Founded in 2009 by Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher, Climeworks has become a leading company in engineered carbon removal. Its work is important because governments, corporations, and climate scientists increasingly recognize that cutting emissions alone may not be enough to reach long-term net-zero goals. The world also needs reliable ways to remove carbon dioxide already present in the atmosphere.
Climeworks has built direct air capture plants in Iceland, including Orca and Mammoth. These facilities use renewable geothermal energy and work with Carbfix, an Icelandic carbon storage company, to turn captured CO₂ into solid minerals underground. This makes the company one of the most visible examples of how climate technology is moving from research into real infrastructure.
Climeworks Climate Tech and the Rise of Direct Air Capture
Climeworks Climate Tech is built around direct air capture, often called DAC. This technology uses machines to pull air through special filters that capture carbon dioxide. Once the filter is full, heat is used to release the CO₂ in a concentrated form. The captured carbon dioxide can then be stored underground or used in certain industrial processes.
The reason direct air capture matters is simple: carbon dioxide is already spread throughout the atmosphere. Even if companies and countries reduce future emissions, existing CO₂ will continue contributing to global warming. Carbon removal technologies are designed to address this part of the climate problem.
Direct air capture is different from traditional carbon capture used at factories or power plants. Traditional carbon capture removes CO₂ from a specific source before it enters the air. Direct air capture removes CO₂ after it has already entered the atmosphere. This makes DAC more flexible but also more technically difficult and expensive.
Why Climeworks Matters in Climate Technology
Climeworks matters because it has moved direct air capture from a laboratory idea into real commercial plants. The company launched Orca in Iceland in 2021, which became one of the first large direct air capture and storage plants in the world. Orca was designed to capture up to 4,000 tons of CO₂ per year.
In 2024, Climeworks launched Mammoth, also in Iceland. Mammoth is much larger than Orca and is designed to capture up to 36,000 tons of CO₂ per year once fully operational. This tenfold scale-up shows how the company is trying to move from early demonstration projects toward larger industrial carbon removal.
The company’s long-term ambition is to reach megaton-scale carbon removal by 2030 and gigaton scale by 2050. These goals are difficult, but they show the scale of the climate challenge. Global emissions are measured in billions of tons, so carbon removal must become much larger and cheaper to have a major impact.
Orca and Mammoth in Iceland
Iceland has become an important location for Climeworks because of its geothermal energy and suitable geology. Direct air capture needs clean energy to operate effectively. If a DAC plant uses high-emission energy, the climate benefit can be reduced. Iceland’s geothermal power helps Climeworks operate with low-carbon energy.
Orca and Mammoth are located near the Hellisheiði geothermal power plant. After CO₂ is captured, it is mixed with water and injected underground by Carbfix. In the basalt rock formations below Iceland, the CO₂ reacts with minerals and becomes solid carbonate rock over time.
This process is important because it offers permanent storage. Unlike temporary carbon offsets such as some forestry projects, mineral storage is designed to keep carbon dioxide locked away for very long periods.
How Climeworks Captures Carbon From Air
Climeworks uses modular collector units that contain filters designed to capture CO₂ from the air. Fans pull air into the collectors, and the filter material binds with carbon dioxide. When the filter is saturated, the collector is closed and heated. The heat releases the concentrated CO₂ so it can be collected.
This modular design allows the company to add more collector units as projects grow. Mammoth, for example, is designed with many collector containers, allowing Climeworks to learn from operation, improve performance, and build supply chain experience.
The technology is still expensive, but scaling is expected to help reduce costs. Like solar energy, batteries, and wind power, direct air capture may become cheaper if manufacturing improves, energy use falls, and deployment increases. However, DAC is more complex than many clean-energy technologies because it involves air processing, heat, materials, storage, monitoring, and long-term verification.
Permanent Carbon Storage With Carbfix
Climeworks’ partnership with Carbfix is central to its Iceland operations. Carbfix stores CO₂ underground by mineralizing it in basalt rock. The captured carbon dioxide is dissolved in water and injected into deep rock formations, where it reacts naturally with minerals.
This storage process gives Climeworks a strong claim in the carbon removal market: captured CO₂ is not only removed from the air but also stored permanently. For companies buying carbon removal credits, permanence is important because they want confidence that the carbon will not be released again soon.
This is one reason engineered carbon removal is attracting attention from companies with long-term climate commitments. Buyers want high-quality removals that are measurable, durable, and verifiable.
Corporate Buyers and the Carbon Removal Market
Climeworks has worked with major corporate customers interested in carbon removal. Companies such as Microsoft, Shopify, Stripe, JPMorgan Chase, and other organizations have supported or purchased carbon removal services from Climeworks.
Corporate demand matters because the carbon removal industry is still young. Early buyers help fund new projects, support technology development, and create market confidence. Without customers willing to pay for high-quality carbon removal, companies like Climeworks would find it harder to scale.
However, carbon removal should not be seen as a replacement for emissions reduction. Most climate experts argue that companies must first reduce their own emissions as much as possible. Carbon removal should be used for hard-to-abate emissions that cannot be eliminated quickly or completely.
Why Direct Air Capture Is Expensive
Direct air capture is expensive because CO₂ is dilute in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide makes up a small share of air, so machines must move large volumes of air to capture meaningful amounts. This requires energy, equipment, filters, maintenance, and storage infrastructure.
Costs are also high because the industry is still early. Plants like Orca and Mammoth are important learning projects, but they are small compared with the scale needed for global climate goals. Larger plants may help reduce costs, but reaching affordable prices will require major engineering progress, strong policy support, and more buyers.
This cost challenge is one of the biggest debates around Climeworks and the wider DAC industry. Supporters argue that direct air capture is necessary for long-term net-zero goals. Critics argue that it is too expensive and should not distract from faster emission cuts such as renewable energy, electrification, efficiency, and industrial decarbonization.
The Role of Policy Support
Policy support will be important for the future of direct air capture. Governments can support carbon removal through tax credits, procurement programs, grants, carbon markets, and rules that encourage companies to remove emissions responsibly.
The United States and Europe have both shown interest in carbon removal technologies. Public funding and regulation can help reduce early-stage risk, while private buyers can create demand. For companies like Climeworks, this combination of policy and market support is essential.
Without strong climate policy, the carbon removal market may grow slowly because high-quality removals are still expensive. With the right support, companies may be able to build larger plants, improve technology, and lower costs over time.
Challenges Facing Climeworks
Climeworks has made major progress, but it still faces real challenges. One challenge is scale. Even Mammoth’s 36,000-ton annual design capacity is small compared with global emissions. To make a meaningful climate impact, direct air capture would need to grow by many orders of magnitude.
Another challenge is energy use. DAC requires clean energy to be climate-positive. This means future plants must be built where low-carbon energy is available and affordable. If energy supply is limited, DAC may compete with other important clean-energy uses.
Cost is also a major barrier. Many carbon removal credits remain expensive compared with traditional offsets. Corporate buyers may support early projects, but large-scale demand will require lower prices and stronger policy frameworks.
There are also questions around measurement, reporting, verification, and full life-cycle emissions. Buyers need confidence that carbon removal credits reflect real, durable removals after accounting for energy use, construction, equipment, and transport.
Why Climeworks Is Important for the Climate Tech Industry
Climeworks is important because it helped create public awareness of direct air capture. Its plants in Iceland have become symbols of engineered carbon removal and proof that CO₂ can be captured from the air and stored underground.
The company also shows how climate tech startups are becoming infrastructure companies. Building carbon removal is not only a software or laboratory challenge. It requires physical plants, energy systems, storage partners, supply chains, engineering teams, and long-term operations.
This makes Climeworks different from many startups. Its success depends on industrial scale, government support, corporate demand, and continued technology improvement. If the company can reduce costs and expand capacity, it could play an important role in the future carbon removal market.
The Future of Carbon Capture From Air
Climeworks Climate Tech reflects a larger shift in how the world thinks about climate action. Reducing emissions remains the most urgent priority, but carbon removal is becoming part of the long-term net-zero strategy.
Direct air capture will not solve climate change alone. It is not a substitute for cutting fossil fuel use, improving energy efficiency, protecting forests, or building cleaner industries. However, it may become important for removing unavoidable emissions from aviation, cement, steel, agriculture, and other hard-to-decarbonize sectors.
Climeworks is one of the companies trying to prove that engineered carbon removal can become reliable, permanent, and scalable. Its work with Orca, Mammoth, Carbfix, and corporate buyers shows how a climate tech startup can help build an entirely new industry around removing carbon from the atmosphere.
Readers can also explore more business and luxury insights through this related article: Alo at Cannes: How Wellness Became Part of Luxury Branding.
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