Two companies with complementary carbon removal technologies have teamed up to scale gigaton CO2 removal. Mission Zero Technologies – direct air capture startup and UK-registered carbon mineralization company 44.01 (Protostar Group Limited) announced their first project named Project Hajar.
The two carbon tech companies signed a MoU to work together earlier this year and now they announced they are ramping up their first project. Project Hajar will be located in the Al Hajar mountains of Oman and involves combining direct air capture with carbon mineralization – a process that takes away CO2 from ambient air and stores it permanently underground. Its capacity will come to 1000 tons of CO2 per year and is expected to come online in 2024.
The captured CO2 from Mission Zero tech will be dissolved in water to create CO2-charged water. Then, it will be injected into peridotite rock formations underground and mineralized using 44.01 technology.
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Peridotite is a dense igneous rock rich in olivine and pyroxene that reacts with water and CO2. In a nutshell, the process stores captured CO2 into rocks and minerals that are one of the most abundant minerals on the planet like serpentine and calcite.
“We’re excited to welcome Mission Zero to our carbon sink… Scaling both direct air capture and mineralization approaches together could not be more crucial,” said Talal Hassan, CEO of 44.01.
“The IPCC has sounded the alarm on how critical permanent carbon removal is for our future – and Project Hajar can be a bedrock for this, deep within the mountains of the Al Hajar range,” added Nicholas Chadwick, CEO of MZT.
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The project will also be connected to solar and wind energy that will power the direct air capture process. This way it will have exceptionally high net carbon removal rates. According to the companies, the modular nature of the direct air capture technology is well-suited to the geographically dispersed nature of onshore mineralization operations and will serve as a blueprint for scaling DAC and carbon mineralization operations in the region.
