Climeworks and 44.01 to unlock CO2 storage potential in Oman
Swiss company, Climeworks, and Omani company, 44.01, have joined forces to unlock the potential of geological storage of air-captured CO2 in the Middle East.
Climeworks’ direct air capture technology offers a solution for large-scale carbon dioxide removal, which will be needed to restore a healthy balance of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Founded by engineers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher in Switzerland in 2009, Climeworks can reverse climate change, by permanently removing carbon dioxide from the air. 44.01 was founded in 2020 by environmentalists with the goals to mineralise one Gigaton (one billion tons) of CO2, by 2030.
To enable direct air capture and storage technologies in climate change mitigation, storage solutions have to be scalable to billions of tons of CO₂ per year. Scientific estimates show that the global potential for geological storage of CO₂ outweighs all greenhouse gases ever emitted since the Industrial Revolution (1760).
The two companies will jointly test the conditions in Oman and explore the potential to combine direct air capture with mineralization in peridotite rocks in the region.
Air-captured CO2
Climeworks uses machines to suck CO2 from the air. This captured carbon dioxide then has two possible destinations:
- It can be returned to the earth, stored safely and permanently away for millions of years.
- It can be upcycled into climate-friendly products such as carbon-neutral fuels and materials.
The Climeworks direct air capture technology runs exclusively on clean energy, and the modular CO2 collectors can be stacked to build machines of any size.
Geological storage of CO2 in peridotite rocks in Oman, has the perfect conditions to store CO2 through the natural process of mineralization. Oman bears the potential to store trillions of tons of CO2 permanently and safely in peridotite formations. The CO2 is permanently removed in natural geological carbon sinks and cannot escape back into the atmosphere.
The potential of CO2 storage
Geological mineralization in suitable rock formations is seen as the safest, most scalable and permanent approach of CO₂ storage, as it is a natural process that is able to store CO₂.
One location in which these suitable rock formations occur is Oman. This is why Climeworks and 44.01 are jointly testing the combination of Climeworks’ direct air capture technology with geological storage of CO2 in Oman. Additionally, renewable energy is abundant in Oman and 44.01 powers its process with solar energy and biofuel produced by local circular economies.
“We are excited to explore the potential to store CO2 from Climeworks’ direct air capture in Oman together with 44.01”, said Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks Quote 44.01. “The geological conditions as well as the high availability of renewable energy make this a perfect location for testing prior to expanding our technology portfolio.”
“We are delighted to be collaborating with Climeworks on such an important project”, agreed Talal Hasan, Founder and CEO of 44.01. “Climeworks is a pioneer in the field of direct air capture and brings in a lot of expertise. The launch of this direct air capture plant is a major step forward for the region which has some of the highest CO2 emissions per capita in the world.”
