In 2006, Icelandic President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson pointed to a painting of early 20th-century Reykjavík choked in coal smoke. He highlighted Iceland’s transition to geothermal energy, but climate scientist Wally Broecker saw something more: Iceland’s basaltic rock might hold the key to removing excess CO2 from the atmosphere.
This vision drives the race for direct air capture (DAC), a technology designed to scrub carbon from the sky. Swiss engineers Jan Wurzbacher and Christoph Gebald, who met at ETH Zurich, took on the challenge. Their startup, Climeworks, was born out of a shared passion for skiing and innovation.
Starting with an aluminum bucket-sized prototype in 2010, their technology evolved into modular DAC machines, capturing CO2 for greenhouses. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Canada’s Carbon Engineering pursued a large-scale liquid-based DAC system.
With scientists warning that 10 billion tons of CO2 must be removed by 2050, Climeworks’ modular approach and Carbon Engineering’s large-scale vision represent two paths toward a cleaner future—one rock, one liquid, both racing against time.
Tune in for the whole story.
Read more: “Bill Gates & Building A Climate Miracle” – Episode 2 Of Scrubbing The Sky Is Out!
