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# Frontier Strikes US$11.7M Deal With 44.01 to Turn CO2 Into Rock in the UAE
- URL: https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/frontier-strikes-us-11-7m-deal-with-44-01-to-turn-co2-into-rock-in-the-uae/
- Published: 2026-10-19T16:58:57.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-19T21:29:54.000Z
- Author: Katherine Castelán
- Tags: Western Hemisphere

Frontier, the carbon removal buying coalition led by Hannah Bebbington Valori, has committed US$11.7 million to buy permanent storage of 20,932 tonnes of carbon dioxide from 44.01 between 2028 and 2031\. It is Frontier’s first purchase using a method that turns CO2 into rock, which could open up new locations for permanent carbon storage. Google is among the buyers, according to a company post from its carbon removal team. 44.01 is led by founder and CEO Talal Hasan. 

The project will be located in the United Arab Emirates. 44.01 sources biogenic CO2 from a wastewater treatment facility that produces biogas, dissolves the gas in water and injects it underground into magnesium-rich rock that reacts with it. The company works with peridotite, an abundant rock type, and was founded in Oman before moving its headquarters to London. According to the company, the CO2 becomes solid rock within one to three years, which lowers the long-term risk of it escaping.

## Market Context

The deal arrives as Frontier scales up. In June, the coalition raised another US$915 million from buyers including Stripe, Google, Shopify, Salesforce, H&M Group and Anthropic, bringing total commitments to US$1.8 billion. Frontier says it will focus on 10 to 15 companies through offtake agreements lasting 8 to 10 years, some running to 2040\. Still, deliveries remain small: seven Frontier portfolio companies delivered about 23,000 tonnes of removal in 2025, roughly the size of this single contract over four years. 

On a simple calculation, the contract works out to about US$559 per tonne. That is within the range of the broader durable removal market, where disclosed offtake prices tracked through early 2026 ran from US$100 to US$989 per tonne, with a median near US$650 for direct air capture. The technology also has a track record, if a small one: a 2023 pilot with ADNOC in the emirate of Fujairah mineralized 10 tonnes of CO2 in under 100 days. Meanwhile, demand is concentrated, with Microsoft accounting for 90% of durable carbon removal purchase volume in 2025, according to ClimeFi.

### Key Signal

> “This small offtake is really the key stepping stone to commercializing in-situ mineralization.”  
> **— Hannah Bebbington Valori, Head of Frontier, to Axios**

## Regional Relevance

Frontier is a U.S.-founded demand engine, and its members are some of the country’s largest tech companies, many of them facing rising emissions from AI data centers. The deal speaks to a specific constraint in the U.S. carbon removal playbook: storage. Google’s Randy Spock described storage as a possible future bottleneck for scaling carbon removal that this method could help relieve. Frontier says the method could also be useful in places where conventional underground storage is too expensive or impractical. If the method works, U.S. buyers gain a storage option beyond the traditional oil-and-gas reservoirs that most carbon capture currently relies on. 

For the UAE, the project builds on state-backed groundwork. ADNOC’s original pilot was part of a US$15 billion decarbonization investment and its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050\. Fujairah was chosen for its abundant peridotite, and the potential applications include emissions captured from cement and steel production, giving a Gulf economy built on hydrocarbons a possible new export: geological storage capacity. For Oman, 44.01 is a rare homegrown climate-tech company with an international buyer base. It raised a US$37 million Series A in July 2024.

## The Other Side

**Can 21,000 tonnes prove anything?** The volume is modest. Axios notes the deal mainly offers an early chance to show whether the technology can work at commercial scale. Frontier counters that the value lies in de-risking: continuous injection has rarely been tested, so success would make the method credible in other peridotite and basalt regions. Frontier estimates such rock formations could store more than 5 billion tonnes a year. 

**Is the CO2 supply a ceiling?** This project draws biogenic CO2 from a single wastewater plant, a niche and limited source. Scaling would likely require pairing the technology with direct air capture or industrial emitters, each with its own costs and verification questions. That makes the storage layer more of an enabler than a standalone business.

**Who buys at scale?** With one buyer dominating durable removal purchases and Frontier concentrating on a small number of companies, 44.01 depends on a narrow pool of customers. If corporate climate commitments weaken or prices fail to fall from the mid-hundreds per tonne, offtake demand could stall before commercial plants are built.

## Sources & Transparency

- [Axios — Exclusive: Frontier secures deal with startup that stores CO2 in rocks](https://www.axios.com/2026/10/15/frontier-carbon-storage-4401?ref=theinvestorsociety.com) *(original source)*
- [Carbon Herald — Frontier Strikes $12 Million Deal With 44.01 To Turn CO2 Into Rock In UAE](https://carbonherald.com/frontier-strikes-12-million-deal-with-44-01-to-turn-co2-into-rock-in-uae/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)
- [ESG Dive — Frontier Climate buyers ink deal to store CO2 as solid rock](https://www.esgdive.com/news/frontier-climate-buyers-ink-deal-to-store-co2-as-solid-rock/833250/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)
- [Muscat Daily — Oman’s 44.01 secures $11.7mn carbon-removal offtake deals](https://www.muscatdaily.com/2026/10/18/omans-44-01-secures-11-7mn-carbon-removal-offtake-deals/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)
- [ESG News — Google Backs 44.01’s $11.7 Million Carbon Removal Deal with Frontier](https://esgnews.com/google-backs-44-01s-11-7-million-carbon-removal-deal-with-frontier/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)
- [44.01 — 44.01 and ADNOC to scale up carbon mineralisation in the UAE](https://www.4401.earth/blog/44-01-and-adnoc-to-scale-up-carbon-mineralisation-in-the-uae?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)
- [The Energy Year — ADNOC to pilot carbon mineralisation technology](https://theenergyyear.com/news/adnoc-to-pilot-carbon-mineralisation-technology/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)
- [The Healthcare Technology Report — Google and Anthropic Back Frontier’s $915 Million Carbon Removal Push](https://thehealthcaretechnologyreport.com/google-and-anthropic-back-frontiers-915-million-carbon-removal-push/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)