Green Jobs: A Solution to Climate Change?

An interview with Sandra Snæbjörnsdóttir, head of CO2 mineral storage at Carbfix

Translation: Jóhannes Bjarki Bjarkason

“Maybe it’s difficult to imagine a carbon disposal plant. On the other hand, it’s mad to think how far we’ve taken the use of fossil fuels.”

“The solution to the climate crisis is a multitude of solutions.”

Photo / Contributed

The more time that passes without serious climate action, the more problems associated with the climate crisis grow and magnify. These problems call for more projects, which an ever increasing number of people and businesses must attend to. There’s been a lot of job creation in this arena, with companies founded to take advantage of certain opportunities in the market. Those jobs that seek to preserve or restore the environment are usually called green jobs. 

Iceland boasts a number of companies that have created green jobs. One of them is Carbfix, a company specializing in capturing and permanently storing carbon dioxide by turning it into stone underground. Sandra Snæbjörnsdóttir is one of the carbon captors working at Hellisheiði, where there are good conditions for carbon dioxide capture and disposal.

Capturing and disposing of carbon dioxide 

At first glance, Carbfix seems like something out of a science fiction story. The company seeks to harness the natural process that occurs when carbon dioxide mineralizes in porous rock. Carbfix has primarily focused on two projects: first, capturing carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from Hellisheiði Power Station’s emissions, and second, capturing carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. Carbfix manages to capture roughly one-third of the carbon dioxide released by Hellisheiði Power Station, which equates to about 12,000 tons a year. Additionally, about 5,000 tons of hydrogen sulfide is scrubbed from the power station’s emissions. This process involves capturing carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from emissions by dissolving them in water. This produces “rather disgusting sulfurous sparkling water,” as Sandra puts it, which is injected deep into the basalt at Hellisheiði. Because the “sparkling water” has a higher density than the water present in the ground, it does not rise, but instead sinks deeper into the strata. Additionally, it is highly acidic, so it releases metals from the rock, which then mineralize the CO2 blend. 

The other injection project at Hellisheiði, which involves capturing carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, is a collaborative operation between Carbfix and the Swiss company Climeworks and is mentioned in Andri Snær Magnason’s book, On Time and Water (Um tímann og vatnið). “The experimental phase of the project is now over,” says Sandra. “Annually, we have injected around 50 tons of carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere. Now we’re initiating a proper project in collaboration with Climeworks, where suction pumps that capture up to 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year will be installed,” Sandra says. Injections are scheduled to start next summer. “Climeworks receives electricity and hot water from ON Power to power these air pumps, and then we take CO2 from them and inject it. This supply chain is the first of its kind in the world, so it’s very exciting.”
Sandra mentions that direct capture from the atmosphere is a more energy-intensive process, because the stream of carbon dioxide is much thinner than from direct emissions. “We will need this technology in the future even if we stop burning fossil fuels,” she says. “We release carbon dioxide through various processes we’re dependent upon, such as cement production, steel and aluminum production, and trash incineration. It’s clear that the goals of the Paris Agreement won’t be reached without carbon capture and disposal on a massive scale. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that around the middle of the century, we will have to halt all carbon dioxide emissions and also capture CO2 from the atmosphere using all available measures, both through natural solutions and through technological solutions like this.”

Photo / Contributed

Carbon capture here to stay 

Carbfix plays an important role in Iceland’s climate change policy. Currently, research and development is underway to determine whether the technology can be adapted to other operations emitting carbon dioxide. In collaboration with waste management association Sorpa, Carbfix will capture carbon dioxide from Sorpa’s landfill site in Álfsnes. “Now we’ll be experimenting with older rock formations, and it’s very important to us to know if that works so we can analyze whether we can use the method, for example with heavy industry operations in Grundartangi and Reyðarfjörður, which release a lot of carbon dioxide. If we achieve full capture and disposal in Iceland’s major industrial areas, we could dispose of around 40% of Iceland’s total carbon emissions.” 

“Next year, we’ll start experiments where we’ll dissolve carbon dioxide in the sea and subsequently inject it into rock,” continues Sandra. “In the future, we can imagine a kind of reverse oil platform: instead of extracting gas and oil from the seafloor, we could be injecting carbon dioxide into the basalt and mineralizing it,” says Sandra. She adds, “It might be difficult to imagine this kind of carbon disposal plant. On the other hand, it’s mad to think how far we’ve taken the use of fossil fuels. This man-made experiment that has been ongoing since the industrial revolution is completely absurd. That mankind has changed Earth’s atmosphere on such a large scale. We are emitting around 40 gigatons of carbon dioxide a year. That’s 40 billion tons annually.” 

For her part, Sandra says she hopes Carbfix and comparable countermeasures will become unnecessary as soon as possible: “The fact that we have to rely on so many technological solutions is a testament to how late we acted. That’s why we’re up at Hellisheiði, developing some kind of vacuum cleaner to suck up the carbon dioxide we’ve already emitted and remove it from the atmosphere to lessen its impact on the earth’s ecosystem.” 

At ON Power’s Geothermal Park at Hellisheiði, companies like Carbfix are developing green solutions. For example, the company Algaennovation, which aims to develop sustainable food sources for the future, is headquartered there. Likewise, businesses all around the country are working on projects relating to greener operations. In terms of greenwashing, the quality and seriousness of these projects vary, but they are all working toward a greener future. “There won’t be any single solution. Carbfix won’t solve the climate crisis. The solution to the climate crisis is a multitude of solutions. Carbfix has one and Climeworks has one. Then we can plant trees, eliminate food waste, and stop this insane consumer culture. Hopefully we can contribute as much as possible,” says Sandra.