Over the past couple of decades most startups paid little attention to how much carbon they’re releasing into the atmosphere, let alone consider how they might lock it all back in.
Yet that is precisely the task of Talal Hasan, founder and CEO of 44.01.
The Bill Gates–backed company has developed an accelerated process that allows CO2 to be safely deposited in rocks called peridotite. Although peridotite mineralization is a naturally occurring process—CO2 is absorbed by the element when rainwater falls—it can take decades to trap even small amounts of carbon.
Speaking at the Fortune Global Forum in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 27, Hasan revealed his company can now speed that process up into a time frame of mere months.
By the end of this decade he wants to achieve a benchmark of converting a million tons of carbon a year into mineralized peridotite.
44.01 achieves its mineralization by injecting CO2 into water before dissolving the liquid into rock deep below the Earth’s surface, thus ensuring it isn’t once again released into the atmosphere.
The carbon stays safely in the rock forever, Hasan explained, illustrating using a mineralized piece of peridotite where white veins of carbon had been stored in the otherwise dark substance.
It’s perhaps no surprise that Hasan’s team has caught the eye of Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, an investment vehicle aiming to scale green businesses.
The three-year-old company is currently operating across three locations: London, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, the latter of which is home to an already and up-and-running site for burying CO2.
Pushing the needle back
Across the globe companies are pledging to be emissions-free: Amazon said it aims to be net zero carbon by 2040, while Apple wants to achieve this by 2030. Governments around the world are scrambling to reach their own targets as well.
Although welcome, reducing emissions does little to reduce the record-high level of carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
“For us to generate a carbon credit we need to remove net 1,000 kilograms, or one [metric] ton of CO2,” Hasan explained, adding that he understood concerns that carbon capture may distract from or delay carbon emissions targets.
He outlined that carbon capture is likely needed alongside decarbonization in order to achieve net-zero targets, a plan set out by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
And 44.01 will have to ramp up its work if it’s going to help with hitting targets set out by the body.
“[The IPCC] have predicted that by 2030…one gigaton per year has to be removed from the atmosphere. That grows to about 20 gigaton by 2050,” Hasan continued. “Just to put it into perspective, one gigaton is the equivalent of all of air travel globally.”
The Omani entrepreneur added he is focused on bringing costs down to scale the business faster, explaining: “No one’s ever drilled in this rock before; no one’s ever done what we’re doing in this particular type of rock. So every injection we do, we find ways to bring the cost down even further…It’s absolutely feasible to scale on a cost basis.”
As these costs come down, and scale ensues, Hasan said the business should be on track to have a site which can process a million tons of carbon per year by 2030.
The Bill Gates effect
As well as winning Prince William’s Earthshot Prize in 2022, Hasan and his team have garnered greater interest having made it into the portfolio of Breakthrough Energy, a venture founded by Bill Gates.
“Breakthrough Energy have been phenomenal. They’ve really helped us with not only the right connections, helping us with financing, but also with coaching, mentoring,” Hasan said. “They’ve been great. It’s about people at the end of the day; it’s about getting the right people in, the right mindset, having that innovative mindset, trying things which no one else has ever tried before.
“Especially in the field that we’re in, no one’s ever done this before, so we’re constantly looking for people to challenge the status quo—Breakthrough really helps us do that.”
Bill Gates' @Breakthrough Fund has been “great with coaching and mentoring,” says @4401earth founder Talal Hasan at #GlobalForum. https://t.co/2cGpyH5lHf pic.twitter.com/lhh7vB8CFX
— FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) November 27, 2023
