In Addition To Failed Pilot "Carbon Capture" Plant, ClimeWorks Laying Off 22% Of Its Staff
Climeworks AG is laying off 106 people, as startups that aim to reverse global warming face a reckoning with the US government slashing climate incentives and programs. The Swiss startup was one of the first companies to develop direct-air capture (DAC) technology to suck carbon dioxide from the sky. It was set to start work building its largest to capture as much as 1 million tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide from the air after receiving a $50 million US government grant last year, with the possibility of securing a further $500 million during construction.
Since then, President Donald Trump’s administration has launched reviews and pulled back government support for many carbon-cutting projects. Though the Energy Department hasn’t axed the program backing Climeworks’ Louisiana plant, its future remains unclear. “We are prepared to move forward with that project, but we also need to consider the scenario that there are changes, or that the administration will not move forward with the project,” Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and co-chief executive officer of Climeworks, told Bloomberg Green in an exclusive interview.
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Climeworks’ pilot plant, called Orca, has the annual capacity to trap 4,000 tons of CO2, but it has never captured more than 1,000 tons in any year since its construction was completed in 2021. Wurzbacher said that the company has been able to run the plant at 65% its nameplate capacity in its best month. Yet he noted the capture technology for Orca is now outdated, meaning it’s not as efficient and has degraded in the four years it has operated. “We have decided not to substantially invest into that plant to squeeze out the last thousand tons,” Wurzbacher said.
Climeworks is building another plant, called Mammoth, with the capacity of 36,000 tons, but Wurzbacher said the construction is running slower than he would like. First operations began in 2024 and it’s working on a three-year ramp-up phase for full capacity. “We have chosen to take a step-by-step approach,” said Wurzbacher. Climeworks has made a series of improvements going from Orca to Mammoth. But they “also introduced new challenges,” he said. For context, CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and cement were estimated to reach 37.4 billion tons last year, according to the Global Carbon Project.
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