The first injection of CO2 has begun at 44.01’s site in Fujairah, in partnership with Adnoc, Masdar and Fujairah Natural Resources Corp.
44.01 said the pilot plan would involve injection of 10 tonnes of CO2. It is the first mineralisation project in the United Arab Emirates and the first peridotite mineralisation project to use seawater to inject CO2.
Should the operation be successful, the company said it had the potential to scale up in 2024.
© Supplied by 44.01The work involves direct air capture (DAC) to extract CO2 from the atmosphere. It then mixes this gas with seawater and injects it into peridotite formations. Once underground, 44.01 reports it will mineralise in less than 12 months.
Masdar has provided clean electricity for the work.
“We are delighted to have started mineralising CO2 in the UAE. This project is a significant scale-up for our technology and the integration of seawater can play a key role in helping us deploy our technology sustainably around the world,” said 44.01 founder and CEO Talal Hasan.
Expansion plans
44.01 won an Earthshot prize in December 2022. The company has said that, unlike storing CO2 in depleted fields or saline aquifers, mineralisation removes the gas forever.
The company initially carried out work in Oman and expanded into Fujairah in January this year, with an announcement at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.
Adnoc CTO Sophie Hildebrand said the pilot marked “the latest step in our $15 billion investment into projects that will reduce our carbon footprint and help us achieve our Net Zero by 2050 ambition”.
44.01 teamed up with Aircapture in Oman. Aircapture agreed to provide DAC units capable of producing up to 500 tonnes per day of liquid CO2. The Oman plan is expected to begin in the Hajar mountains in late 2024. 44.01 has been carrying out pilot projects in the area.
Recommended for you
