United Arab Emirates oil company ADNOC and Omani climate tech company 44.01 are preparing to take a major leap on their collaborative carbon mineralization project following a successful pilot run.
In a project launched in 2023, ADNOC and 44.01, along with the Fujairah Natural Resources Corporation (FNRC) and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), deployed 44.01’s carbon mineralization technology in the Emirate of Fujairah, where it was used to store CO2 into rock formations.
During this time, the carbon dioxide was captured directly from the atmosphere and dissolved in seawater, after which it was injected into peridotite rocks where it would mineralize, staying locked away without the possibility of escaping back into the atmosphere.
The pilot’s location in the Emirate of Fujairah was chosen due to the abundant peridotite rock resources available in that area. With their natural ability to react with CO2 and mineralize it, peridotite rocks have the potential to eliminate substantial amounts of carbon emissions when utilized at scale.
As part of this collaborative effort, the project’s operations were powered with renewable energy provided by Masdar.
In this initial stage of technology deployment, the pilot project managed to permanently mineralize 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into peridotite rock formations in under 100 days.
Building on this momentum, the partners now plan to scale up the technology in an effort to demonstrate its potential for wider deployment in the UAE.
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To that end, during the ADIPEC conference in Abu Dhabi, the project developers announced that in its first scale-up phase, the technology will be used to inject more than 300 tonnes of CO2 over a longer period.
For 44.01, the scale-up will happen as the company competes for the Carbon Removal XPRIZE, with their Project Hajar making the list of the top 20 finalists.
For ADNOC, this carbon mineralization project forms part of the company’s broader decarbonization strategy, which entails investing $15 billion into projects that will address the carbon footprint of their operations, aligning with the company’s Net Zero by 2050 ambition.
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