ICYMI... HIBT Lab! Climeworks: Jan Wurzbacher
Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and CEO of Climeworks, explains how his company is building the world's largest direct air capture facility, the Orca plant in Iceland, which removes 4,000 tons of CO2 annually. He details the technology's modular design, using filter materials that capture CO2 and release it when heated, allowing for permanent underground storage in basaltic rock. Wurzbacher discusses the company's journey from selling CO2 to greenhouses and Coca-Cola to securing $650 million in Series 6 funding to scale operations. He argues that while emission reductions are critical, removing 10 billion tons of CO2 yearly by 2050 requires scalable technological solutions like Climeworks, which he compares to the rapid cost reduction seen in solar PV.