ADNOC and 44.01 have announced plans to scale up their carbon-to-rock project in the Emirate of Fujairah, following the successful completion of their pilot, in partnership with the Fujairah Natural Resources Corporation (FNRC) and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar).
The announcement was made at ADIPEC, currently taking place in Abu Dhabi.
The initial pilot of 44.01’s Earthshot prize-winning mineralisation technology started in 2023 and permanently mineralised 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) within Fujairah’s peridotite rock formations in under 100 days.
The first phase of scale up will inject more than 300 tonnes of CO2 over a longer duration to demonstrate the potential of the technology to be deployed at scale in the UAE.
H.E. Engineer Ali Qasem, Director General of the Fujairah Natural Resources Corporation, said the carbon conversion project marks a significant step toward a more sustainable future.
He said, “We are committed to supporting such innovative technologies that strengthen our efforts to achieve sustainable development goals. The presence of peridotite formations in Fujairah offers unique potential to implement projects like this on a large scale, helping us reduce our carbon footprint and support environmental strategies.”
The Emirate was selected for this pilot due to its abundance of peridotite, a form of rock that naturally reacts with CO2 to mineralise it. At scale, peridotite mineralization could eliminate billions of tons of carbon emissions, helping decarbonise vital industries and remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
Sophie Hildebrand, ADNOC Chief Technology Officer, said technology is a key enabler of ADNOC’s decarbonisation strategy.
She said, “Carbon capture is an important tool to reduce carbon emissions and meet global climate goals and we look forward to scaling-up this project and confirming the commercial viability of carbon mineralisation.”
44.01, supported by ADNOC and FNRC, is scaling up operations in Fujairah as they compete for the Carbon Removal XPRIZE. The project was named one of the XPRIZE’s Top 20 projects earlier in 2024.
Talal Hasan, CEO of 44.01, said its pilot project with ADNOC demonstrated the viability of carbon mineralisation in the UAE, and it was collaborating on scaling up operations and continuing to refine its technology on the way to commerciality.
During the initial pilot, operations were powered by renewable energy provided by Masdar. The CO2 was captured directly from the atmosphere, dissolved in seawater and injected into peridotite formations deep underground, where it mineralised – ensuring the CO2 can never escape back into the atmosphere. The first phase of the scale-up will build on this process.
As part of ADNOC’s carbon management strategy, the company is targeting a carbon capture capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by 2030. The company has embarked on major carbon capture projects, taking its committed investment for carbon capture capacity to almost 4 mtpa.
ADNOC and Masdar team up with Microsoft
Separately ADNOC and Masdar have signed a Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Microsoft on a range of artificial intelligence (AI) and low-carbon initiatives in the UAE and globally aimed at decarbonising energy and enabling a sustainable system.
As part of the SCA, the companies will evaluate opportunities to power Microsoft’s data centres with renewable energy through Masdar, alongside ways to use AI to advance carbon capture and storage projects and low-carbon ammonia and hydrogen projects.
It will also consider how to accelerate AI deployment across ADNOC’s operations to enhance efficiencies, and drive methane reduction initiatives aligned to the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter to achieve near zero methane by 2030.
Read more on technology, energy and data centres in the November issue of gasworld global
