ISAL ALUMINIUM SMELTER IN ICELAND TO STORE CARBON UNDERGROUND
The multinational Rio Tinto and Carbfix have signed an agreement for the implementation of a technology that will allow them to capture carbon and store it permanently underground at the ISAL aluminium smelter in Iceland.
Indeed, Rio Tinto sees ISAL as an ideal site to become the first smelter to implement carbon capture and storage in the aluminium industry, bringing safe and cost-effective carbon storage within its reach. In addition, the companies will work together to advance carbon capture solutions that are already being tested in production cells at ISAL, with the goal of using Carbfix technology to further decarbonize the plant.
Carbfix will also use Rio Tinto’s land surrounding the ISAL smelter for onshore CO2 injection at the world’s first carbon ore storage facility, the Coda Terminal. Liquefied CO2 will be imported by ship from industrial sites across northern Europe for storage.
Carbfix CEO Edda Sif Aradottir stresses that %22global climate goals will not be met without large-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage. The partnership with Rio Tinto will enable Carbfix to take a significant step forward in the development of the world’s first carbon mineral storage facility so that our technology can make a significant contribution to global climate efforts.
Carbfix technology rapidly transforms CO2 injected into geological formations into solid carbonate minerals by accelerating natural processes. The only raw materials used are water, electricity and favourable bedrock, such as the basalts surrounding the ISAL site in Iceland.
Rio Tinto Aluminium CEO Ivan Vella details that %22the innovative technology employed by Carbfix provides a pathway to further decarbonisation of aluminium production at our ISAL smelter, which already produces low carbon aluminium using renewable energy. We will work together to address the technical challenges to advance the carbon capture solution we have begun testing at ISAL.%22
Since 2014, Carbfix has captured over 70,000 metric tons of carbon from a power plant in Iceland and permanently stored it. Carbfix recently commissioned the world’s largest CO 2 storage and direct air capture system with its partner Climeworks. Carbfix plans to drill the first injection wells for the Coda Terminal in 2022, with CO 2 shipments beginning in 2025.
