Orca

Orca combines Climeworks' direct air capture technology with the underground storage of carbon dioxide, which is carried out by the Icelandic company Carbfix. With a nominal capture capacity of 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, it is Climeworks’ largest facility to date. Orca is located near the Hellisheiði electricity power plant in Iceland, which provides Orca and the Carbfix CO2 injection sites with renewable energy to run the direct air capture and storage process. Orca was officially launched in September 2021.

Orca is the first ever, real-life direct air capture and storage plant in commercial operations, demonstrating that the full process works from capturing the CO₂ from air to processing and permanently storing it via the Carbfix method. Every step of this process is measurable, and each CO₂ molecule is permanently removed for thousands of years.

Thanks to the high-quality carbon dioxide removal (CDR) it provides, Orca has become the backbone for pioneering CO₂ removal agreements and created the demand that is necessary to kickstart this industry. Climeworks’ CDR service is one of the most permanent solutions available today and Orca is the first (and only) DAC+S service on track to be certified globally.

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Climeworks empowers people and companies to fight global warming by offering carbon dioxide removal as a service via direct air capture (DAC) technology.

Climeworks is spear-heading the DAC industry globally, with the world’s largest DAC facility and storage installation in operation and a team of over 245 Climeworkers determined to contribute to a net-zero future. Their growing customer base includes over 160 companies, including multinationals such as Microsoft, BCG, UBS or Swiss Re, as well as more than 16,000 individual Climate Pioneers.

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Certifications:

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• DAC+S certification methodology validated by DNV - Climeworks and Carbfix developed the world's first full-chain certification methodology dedicated to carbon dioxide removal via direct air capture and underground mineralization storage. This methodology has been validated by the independent quality and assurance leader DNV.
• Green GOOD DESIGN Sustainability Award - Green GOOD DESIGN Sustainability Awards goal is to bestow international recognition to those outstanding individuals, companies, organizations, governments, and institutions - together with their products, services, programs, ideas, and concepts-that have forwarded exceptional thinking and inspired greater progress toward a healthier and more sustainable universe.

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Climeworks’ vision is to inspire 1 billion people to remove CO2 from the air. Climeworks is offering its carbon dioxide removal service to businesses and individuals alike. Tour CO₂ removal service is the first of its kind.

Founded by engineers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher in 2009, Climeworks is on a journey to climate impact at scale.

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"Orca is Climeworks’ biggest facility to date. We are grateful for the pioneers that enabled us to increase the carbon dioxide removal capacity in Iceland. This facility demonstrates that carbon dioxide removal on a large scale is both possible and necessary."

Nathalie Casas, Head of Technology

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