The world is moving away from fossil fuels, but it cannot move quickly enough to avoid the most disastrous effects of climate change, and some industries will always be difficult to decarbonise. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates suggest that, if we are to achieve our net-zero targets, we need to remove 1 billion metric tons of carbon annually across all carbon removal solutions. This CO2 needs to be captured from the atmosphere and then ideally be eliminated forever.
44.01’s natural process of carbon mineralization does exactly this. 44.01 takes captured CO2 and injects it into peridotite formations deep underground. Natural peridotite mineralisation can take many decades, but 44.01’s technology accelerates the process, turning CO2 into rock within 12 months, eliminating it from the atmosphere safely, quickly and cost-effectively. Peridotite, which is found across America, Europe, Asia and Australasia, can mineralise more CO2 per tonne, faster, than any other rock, offering the potential for giga tons of CO2 to be eliminated.
44.01 operates in Oman, home to the world’s most abundant source of peridotite. Oman also offers an attractive place to operate other carbon removal technologies such as direct air capture or industrial point source capture because of its access to large amounts of solar energy. For each tonne of CO2 mineralised, 44.01 creates a carbon credit that can be sold on the voluntary carbon market or ‘retired’ to offset hard-to-abate emissions. Mineralisation credits, which offer verified carbon removal, sell at a premium compared to credits for carbon avoidance.
A permanent solution
To reach our net zero targets we need to remove carbon from the atmosphere. But, without permanent sequestration, carbon capture will not be able to deliver on its promises. Currently, 44.01 is one of the few and already visible players in the space able to offer sequestration in geological formations. Their mineralization in suitable rock formations is seen as the safest, most scalable, and most permanent approach to CO2 removal. And they have strong partners on board: Climeworks and 44.01 are jointly testing the combination of Climeworks’ direct air capture technology with geological mineralisation of CO2 in Oman.
A team of world-leading experts
The strong and experienced trio of founders Talal Hasan, Karan Khimji, and Ehab Tasfai are working alongside the world’s leading experts in sequestering carbon in geological formations: Professor Peter Keleman, a leading scientist in the field of CO2 capture and mineralization, and Juerg Matter, one of the original founding members of Carbfix. 44.01 launched their first CO2 pilot sink last year. The sink proved their approach works faster than expected and caused no damage to the surface and subsurface. The results have convinced several high-profile investors, including Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy, to back the company.
Our life cycle assessment shows that 44.01 eliminates much more CO2 per tonne captured than they emit to operate their processes. Their supply chain provides CO2 for sequestration with a high overall carbon removal efficiency ranging from 88 to 91%. This means that for each 1000 kg of CO2 captured and eliminated only 90 to 120 kg CO2e are emitted to operate the full supply chain. Their strategically valuable location in Oman minimises transportation requirements and facilitates the use of energy from fully renewable sources.
