is what makes the beer fizzy and carbonated. why valley brewery in herefordshire needs half a pint of liquid co2 delivered for every pint they make that s 3 million litres a year. without it, the beer would be completely flat and undrinkable, so co2 is essential. but if co2 is all around us, shouldn t these companies be able to harvest it themselves? that s where these future looking refrigerator sized units come in from a new us start up. we can provide co2 for large food packaging plants, all the way down to a small machine air to pull all the co2 right out of the air from inside the restaurant or bar right to the soda gun or the tap. they do it by using these cubes with thousands of tiny holes through them. the whole thing is coated in a chemical that absorbs c02.
to the global fight against climate change. the hellisheidi power station s emissions are being used by carbon capture and storage company carbfix, that s turning co2 to stone. it comes in directly from the power station and it enters that tower from the bottom here. then we inject cold water at the top and the co2 becomes dissolved in water. crucial to the process is this giant oversized sodastream like tower. it makes sparkling water, then it s ready to be transported to our injection site. these metal igloos or giant christmas puddings, depending how hungry you are is where we start to get subterranean. here, the carbonated liquid is forced a kilometre underground, where it meets the volcanic basalt rock. basalt has a lot of the metal that is required to permanently bind the c02. so once it gets in contact with the basalt, it s gonna form stable carbonate minerals, where it will be permanently
in the first stage, we blow air through. c02 sticks on the material, they are purified air so air without c02 or with very little c02 leaves the box. when the filter is full, we close the door and start heating. we heat up the collector up to 100 degrees, c02 is released and we take it out. once the filters are cleaned, the carbon capture can start all over again. it s a pleasure for me to introduce you to our testing laboratory. we re the first camera crew allowed into climeworks labs, where they have been experimenting with thousands of materials to try to find the most effective at absorbing c02, and at which temperatures. because nobody s interested to remove a bit of c02, we are all interested in removing large amounts of c02, millions of tons, so we have to rely on materials that can be produced in the large scale in
in fact, you could put it in some of the cleanest parts of the world. i ve come to switzerland to, look at an exciting and relatively new way to clean up the planet s atmosphere, and it is being pioneered right here. climeworks is one of the companies hoping the answer to the great carbon clean up is in the thin air around us. these huge intake fans called collectors are sucking in the air from around them and they are taking out the c02, and because c02 is around us everywhere, you can place these, well, pretty much anywhere on the planet they can be cleaning up the environment. natalie casas leads the team here. she moved from carbon capture to direct air capture after seeing expensive projects scrapped because of their cost. so we have a 2 stage process.
collectors are sucking in the air from around them and they are taking out the c02, and because c02 is around us everywhere, you can place these, well, pretty much anywhere on the planet they can be cleaning up the environment. natalie casas leads the team here. she moved from carbon capture to direct air capture after seeing expensive projects scrapped because of their cost. so we have a 2 stage process. in the first stage, we blow air through. c02 sticks on the material, they are purified air so air without c02 or with very little c02 leaves the box. when the filter is full, we close the door and start heating. we heat up the collector up to 100 degrees, c02 is released and we take it out. once the filters are cleaned, the carbon capture can start all over again.