From thin air to stone - greenhouse gas test starts in Iceland

FILE PHOTO: A facility for capturing CO2 from air of Swiss Climeworks AG is placed on the roof of a waste incinerating plant in Hinwil, Switzerland July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

OSLO (Reuters) - A Swiss company will start to extract carbon dioxide from thin air in Iceland on Thursday, seeking to transform the gas into rock far below ground in a first test of a costly technology meant to slow climate change.

The engineering experiment, by Swiss firm Climeworks with Reykjavik Energy, will cost hundreds of dollars to extract each tonne of greenhouse gases from nature and entomb it permanently underground.