Targeting hard-to-abate industries, Icelandic company Carbfix scales up C02 mineral storage to gigaton levels by dissolving it in water and injecting it permanently into rocks.
Carbfix is an Icelandic company founded in 2007. It has developed an approach to permanently store CO2 by dissolving it in water and injecting it into basaltic rocks. Once in the subsurface, the injected CO2 reacts with the host rock forming stable carbonate minerals, thus providing permanent storage of the injected CO2. This method provides tailored carbon capture solutions for cement, iron, steel, chemical and energy industries, reducing their climate impact.
Carbfix began as a research collaboration in 2006, formalized by key partners in 2007, and has evolved into a fully operational industrial process. The company operates injection sites in Iceland with emphasis on injection of CO2 captured from point-sources of CO2, CO2 that is captured and transported to an injection site, and CO2 that is captured directly from the atmosphere using direct air capture (DAC) technology.
Since 2014, Carbfix has captured and injected CO2 and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) from Hellisheiði Geothermal Power Plant. It is currently working on scaling up operations at the plant through the EU Innovation Fund project Silverstone, aiming for near-zero geothermal power production by capturing over 95% of CO2 and 99% of H2S from the plant’s emissions.
The company collaborates with numerous universities and research institutes to further develop the Carbfix Technology and advance understanding of carbon mineralization.