MUSCAT: Award-winning Omani carbon mineralization start-up 44.01 and Oman’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals (MEM) have agreed a concession for the world’s first commercial-scale peridotite mineralisation project. The project, which will begin in 2024 in the Hajar mountains, will be the largest peridotite mineralisation activity in the world, and the first commercial demonstration to mineralise multiple tonnes of CO2 per day.
The project will take place at a site in Al Qabil, where 44.01 has already completed a successful pilot project to prove that their process is effective, safe and permanent. 44.01 will take CO2 captured from the atmosphere or from industrial processes, dissolve it in water, and then inject it into peridotite formations deep underground, where it will mineralise, or turn into rock, meaning it can never escape back into the atmosphere.
Peridotite, an ultramafic rock found in abundance across Oman, mineralises CO2 naturally, but this usually takes decades. 44.01’s technology accelerates the process, offering a safe, permanent, scalable way of eliminating CO2 in less than a year.
Eng. Salim bin Nasser al Aufi, Minister of Energy and Minerals, said: “44.01’s mineralisation technology, developed here in Oman, has the potential to help our country meet its net zero targets and decarbonise vital Omani industries in line with His Majesty’s Vision 2040. We are pleased to support 44.01 in its largest project so far and we look forward to seeing what this technology can achieve in the future.”
Talal Hasan, Founder and CEO of 44.01, said: “We are delighted to have agreed this concession with the Ministry of Energy and Minerals. We hope this project paves the way for the Sultanate of Oman to become a world leader in permanent CO2 removal.”
44.01 eliminates CO2 by turning it into rock, removing it from the atmosphere safely, efficiently, and permanently. 44.01, whose name refers to the molecular mass of carbon dioxide, mineralises CO2 in peridotite, a rock found in abundance in Oman, as well as in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australasia. Peridotite mineralisation is a natural process, which 44.01 accelerates by injecting carbonated fluid into peridotite formations deep underground.
44.01 won the Earthshot Prize and an XPrize Milestone Award in 2022. The company’s technology has also been recognised by Stripe, Shopify, and Watershed, among others.
SOURCE: 44.01
DATE: 31 May 2023
