Swiss company Climeworks and Omani company 44.01 have joined forces to explore the potential of geological storage of direct air-captured CO2 in the Middle East in a first-of-its-kind test project. The two companies will jointly test the conditions in Oman and explore the potential to combine direct air capture with mineralisation in peridotite in the region.
It is generally agreed that it may be necessary in meeting climate control aims to remove atmospheric CO₂ as well as reducing emissions. Climeworks modular technology can be stacked to build machines of any size and is powered entirely by renewable energy. Its technology will now be tested under the climatic and geological conditions in the Middle East.
Oman has the perfect conditions to store CO₂ through the process of mineralisation in peridotite. Carbon mineralisation occurs naturally in alkaline environments: atmospheric CO₂ reacts with peridotite rocks which are rich in magnesium and calcium, to precipitate carbonates. Oman bears the potential to store trillions of tons of CO₂ permanently and safely in peridotite formations. Additionally, renewable energy is abundant in Oman and 44.01 powers its process with solar energy and biofuel produced by local circular economies.
To enable direct air capture and storage technologies to fulfil a role in climate change mitigation, storage solutions have to be scalable to billions of tons of CO₂ per year. Geological storage of CO₂ combines the scalability and technical maturity on the one hand with safety and permanence on the other. Scientific estimates show that the global potential for geological storage of CO₂ outweighs all greenhouse gases ever emitted since the Industrial Revolution.
