SHORTLY AFTER 6pm on September 9th， the Orca carbon-capture plant， just outside Reykjavik in Iceland， switched on its fans and began sucking carbon dioxide from the air。 The sound was subtle—a bit like a gurgling stream。 But the plant’s creators hope it will mark a big shift in humanity’s interaction with the climate。

9月9日下午6點剛過，冰島雷克雅未克郊外的“虎鯨”碳捕集廠啟動了風扇，開始從空氣中吸收二氧化碳。這聲音很微弱——有點像汩汩的溪水，這座工廠的創造者希望它能標誌著人類與氣候相互作用的重大轉變。

Orca is， for now， the largest installation in the infant “direct air capture” industry， which aims to remove CO2 from the atmosphere。 When sealed underground such CO2 counts as “negative emissions”—an essential but underdeveloped method for tackling global warming。 To stop temperatures rising by 1。5°C or even 2°C above pre-industrial averages， as per the Paris climate agreement， hundreds or thousands of billions of tonnes of CO2 will have to be removed from the atmosphere in the second half of the century。

“虎鯨”是目前“直接空氣捕碳”行業規模最大的工廠，而這個行業是要從大氣中去除二氧化碳。將這些二氧化碳封存到地下，就可視為“負排放”——這是應對全球變暖的一種必要但不先進的方法。根據《巴黎氣候協議》，為了阻止大氣溫度超過工業革命前平均水平的1。5攝氏度，甚至2攝氏度，必須在本世紀下半葉從大氣中去除數千億公噸的二氧化碳。

Currently， the only means of doing that is planting trees， an option that is not entirely without drawbacks。 Trees burn in wildfires and can be cut down。 When this happens， much of the carbon they store escapes。 The Orca plant shows another way。 Climeworks， the company that owns it， has developed chemical filters which snag CO2 when air passes through them。 When heated they release the CO2 again， generating a stream of gas that is handed to another firm called Carbfix。

目前，減少二氧化碳的唯一的方法是植樹，一個並非完全完美的方法。樹木可能會因為山火而燒燬，也可能會遭人為砍伐。當這種情況發生時，它們儲存的大部分二氧化碳都會逃逸。“虎鯨”廠展示的是另一條路徑。它的所有者Climeworks公司開發了一種化學過濾器，可以在空氣經過時擷取二氧化碳。當加熱時，過濾器會再次釋放二氧化碳，產生的氣體會轉交給另一家名為Carbfix的公司。

Carbfix pipes the gas to nearby wells， mixes it with water and pumps the resulting carbonated water into the bedrock。 In Iceland that consists almost entirely of volcanic basalts， which contain minerals that react with carbon dioxide to form calcium carbonate， a white crystal that is the main ingredient in limestone。 Thus， the full operation extracts CO2 from air and turns it to rock。 Trials have shown that Icelandic basalts can sequester CO2 in solid rock within two years。 Power comes from a nearby geothermal power station。

Carbfix公司的管道將氣體輸送到附近的井中，與水混合，再透過泵將產生的碳酸水壓入基岩。冰島地下幾乎全是火山玄武岩，其中含有的礦物質與二氧化碳反應形成碳酸鈣。碳酸鈣是一種白色晶體，是石灰石的主要成分。因此，整個操作流程是從空氣中提取二氧化碳並將其轉化為岩石。試驗表明，冰島的玄武岩可以在兩年內將二氧化碳封存在堅硬的岩石中。這個過程所使用的電來自附近的地熱發電站。

One catch is volume。 Orca will capture 4，000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year， out of around 35bn tonnes produced by burning fossil fuels。 Climeworks is “confident” it can reach millions of tonnes before the decade is out。 （A previous， eye-popping ambition to grab 1% of emissions by 2025 is no longer on the cards。）

第一個問題是捕獲量。燃燒化石燃料每年產生約350億噸二氧化碳，而“虎鯨”鯨每年將僅捕獲4000噸二氧化碳。Climeworks公司“有信心”在未來10年達到數百萬噸。（之前引人注目的目標是到2025年減排1%不可能實現了。）

Another is cost。 It costs Orca somewhere between $600-800 to sequester one tonne of carbon dioxide， and the firm sells offset packages online for around $1，200 per tonne。 The company thinks it can cut costs ten-fold through economies of scale。 But there appears to be no shortage of customers willing to pay the current， elevated price。 Even as Orca’s fans revved up， roughly two-thirds of its lifetime offering of carbon removals had already been sold。 Clients include corporations seeking to offset a portion of their emissions， such as Microsoft， Swiss Re （and The Economist）， as well as over 8，000 private individuals。

另一問題是成本。“虎鯨”工廠 封存一噸二氧化碳的成本是600至800美元，而該公司在網上出售的碳抵押包的價格是每噸約1200美元左右。該公司認為，透過規模經濟效應，可以將成本降低19%。願意支付當前高昂價格的客戶也不缺。正當“虎鯨”工廠的風扇開足馬力運轉的時候，已售出約三分之二的去碳產品。客戶包括尋求抵消部分排放的企業，如微軟，瑞士再保險，以及超過8000名個人。

Climeworks is not alone in having spotted the opportunity。 Using different chemistry， Carbon Engineering， a Canadian company， is gearing up to switch on its own carbon-scrubbing facilities。 It will take more than these pioneer engineers and financiers to build a gigatonne-sized industry。 But the fans are turning。 ■

並不是只有“虎鯨”發現了這個機會。利用不同的化學方法，加拿大的碳工程公司正準備啟動自己的碳洗滌設施。要建立一個億噸規模的行業，需要的不僅僅是這些先驅工程師和金融家。不過，腳步已開始邁出。

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