Exclusive: Frontier secures deal with startup that stores CO2 in rocks
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Frontier, the group of big companies jump-starting carbon removal markets, has brokered $11.7 million in new purchase deals with the startup 44.01.
Why it matters: It's Frontier's first purchase using a promising but nascent method that turns CO2 into rock, potentially opening up new locations for permanent carbon storage.
- The process involves injecting CO2 into rock formations, triggering chemical reactions that transform it into stable, solid minerals.
Driving the news: The agreement is for around 21,000 tons of removal between 2028 and 2031.
- The company intends to draw CO2 from a wastewater treatment plant for injection into rock formations on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates.
- But the tech could also help scale removal methods by expanding permanent storage options, especially in places where conventional underground storage is too expensive or impractical, Frontier said.
State of play: 44.01, which was founded in Oman and is headquartered in London, works with an abundant form of rock called peridotite.
- The company — which takes its name from the molecular mass of CO2 — dissolves captured CO2 in water and injects it deep into the rock.
- This speeds a "natural reaction with magnesium silicate minerals that locks the CO₂ into stable, solid carbonates," Frontier said.
Zoom out: The CO2 volume in this deal is small, but it offers an early opportunity to show whether the technology can work at commercial scale.
- Peridotite and other formations that can react with CO2 this way could potentially store over 5 billion tons annually, according to Frontier.
- The technology could also provide a storage option for CO2 captured from industrial operations like cement and steel production, Frontier said.
"What's amazing about this project is, because it will be one of the first continuous injection trials and pilots, it will de-risk in-situ mineralization anywhere around the world," Frontier head Hannah Bebbington Valori said.
Catch up quick: Frontier vets carbon removal startups and facilitates purchase deals on behalf of founding members and other companies.
- It was founded in 2022 by players including Google, Shopify and Stripe, and includes Autodesk, H&M Group, and Workday.
- Frontier also works with other buyers through a partnership with the corporate sustainability platform Watershed.
The bottom line: "This small offtake is really the key stepping stone to commercializing in-situ mineralization, and building out the in-situ mineralization infrastructure in the same way that we have with conventional geologic storage," Bebbington Valori said in an interview.
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