The technology has been developed by a Swiss company and is currently in operation in Iceland.
“The novelty in this is that it combines known technologies in a new way”, says Philip Fosbøl.
“It’s basically the opposite of making club soda. Here the tiny CO2 molecules are removed from the air through a reaction with certain liquids”, Fosbøl explains.
So what perspectives are there in this technology?
“I see great perspectives in this”, Fosbøl says. “We need a two-fold approach where we help the industry reduce their CO2 emissions, but if we are to reach the climate goals in the Paris agreement, we also need to be able to perform negative CO2 emissions by 2050 and pull CO2 out of the atmosphere, so to speak”.
Could we just build such CO2 removal plants all over the world to pull out excess CO2 from the atmosphere?
“This technology is probably not feasible everywhere. Currently the technology is expensive and energy-demanding. Iceland is unique in that they have large amounts of surplus energy and a special subsurface which makes it possible to store CO2 in this way. Having said that there are numerous other places in Europe with suitable conditions”, Fosbøl adds.
Could we have such a plant in Denmark at some point?
“I don’t see why not. For example, we have an old natural gas reservoir which is almost empty where there is plenty of room for storage”, Fosbøl says.
The interview can be seen in its entirety for a limited period of time via this link: https://www.dr.dk/tv/se/dr2-dagen/dr2-dagen-tv/dr2-dagen-2017-11-23#!/16:57