The world’s biggest plant to pull carbon from the sky just opened

After decades of hype and doubt, giant factories that can pull thousands of tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere are starting to spin up.

Climeworks, a Swiss start-up, opened the biggest carbon absorbing plant in the world on May 8 in Hellisheidi, Iceland. Dubbed “Mammoth,” the plant is designed to remove 36,000 metric tons of carbon each year, the equivalent of taking 8,600 cars off the road.