Capturing Carbon at Scale: Jan Wurzbacher on Engineering Climate Solutions

About this episode

Dr. Jan Wurzbacher discusses the science and engineering behind carbon capture and the efforts of Climeworks to scale CO₂ removal.

Dr. Jan Wurzbacher, ETH alumnus and co-founder of Climeworks, joins host Susan Kish to talk about the urgent need—and emerging science—behind removing CO₂ from the atmosphere. Born out of a vision shared with fellow ETH engineer Christophe Gebald, Climeworks has grown from lab experiments at ETH Zurich to building the world’s first large-scale direct air capture plants in Iceland. Jan explains the mechanics of carbon capture using sorbent materials, the hurdles of scaling such a system, and how engineering and climate science must work together to meet the planet’s carbon removal targets. He also reflects on the importance of market creation, policy support, and public trust as Climeworks moves toward its ambitious goal of gigaton-scale CO₂ removal by 2050. This episode is a deep dive into innovation at the edge of climate action—and a rare look inside one of ETH Zurich’s most impactful spin-offs. books mentioned in this episode: Jim Collins «From Good to Great». Verne Harnish «Scaling Up» chapters: (00:27) Meet Dr. Jan Wurzbacher: Co-Founder of Clime Works (00:56) The Origin Story: Meeting at ETH (02:19) Applying Mechanical Engineering to Climate Change (02:31) How Clime Works…

People in this episode

Host: Susan Kish

Guest: Dr. Jan Wurzbacher

Topics covered

• carbon capture
• climate solutions
• engineering
• sustainability
• innovation
• direct air capture

Keywords

• carbon capture
• Climeworks
• climate action
• CO₂ removal
• ETH Zurich
• sustainability
• engineering

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Climeworks, ETH Zurich

Books & works: From Good to Great, Scaling Up

Places: Iceland

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