An $11.7 million offtake agreement will permanently remove nearly 21,000 tonnes of CO2 between 2028 and 2031, moving Omani mineralization startup 44.01 from demonstration to commercial deployment.

Carbon removal buyer coalition Frontier signed the deal on behalf of Stripe, Google, Shopify, Autodesk, H&M Group and Workday. It's Frontier's first purchase of carbon removal using in-situ mineralization, and its first in the Middle East.

The number to watch is the price. At $11.7 million for roughly 21,000 tonnes, the implied cost sits near $557 per tonne — well above conventional storage routes, but that's exactly the gap 44.01 says it intends to close as it scales.

What does 44.01's process actually do?

Founded in Oman in 2020, 44.01 eliminates CO2 captured from air or from hard-to-abate industrial processes by accelerating natural mineralization. The technology dissolves captured CO2 in water, creating an acidic solution that mobilizes cations within rock. That fluid is injected deep underground, where high pressure, temperature and CO2 concentration drive rapid mineralization — the carbon becomes rock, permanently.

The company already has industrial track record forming. It recently launched a project with building materials giant Holcim in the UAE to capture, permanently store and mineralize CO2 from cement production — a hard-to-abate stream with few disposal alternatives.

The takeaway: this is engineered geology, not forestry credits, and permanence is the selling point.

What changes at commercial scale?

According to 44.01, the new Frontier-backed project will be the first of its kind at commercial scale to combine biogenic CO2 with permanent storage through mineralization. It will also generate operating data to inform larger projects as the company works to establish in-situ mineralization as an economically viable, scalable global CO2 storage solution.

Talal Hasan, CEO of 44.01, said: "This agreement marks an important step for 44.01: moving our technology from demonstration to commercial deployment. Frontier and its buyers are backing a fundamentally different approach to permanent carbon removal — turning captured CO₂ into rock. Our focus is now on delivering at commercial scale, continuously improving performance and driving down costs, so that more customers can benefit from this technology."

Cost trajectory is the whole game here. Demonstration tonnage starts in 2028; what buyers and competitors will scrutinize is the per-tonne figure by 2031.

Why is Frontier concentrating its bets?

The deal follows Frontier's announcement that it raised $915 million from corporate buyers including Stripe, Google, Shopify, Salesforce, H&M Group and Anthropic — doubling the initiative's funding. Frontier said it will concentrate purchases on a narrower portfolio of companies where it sees high conviction of gigaton-scale potential on the supply side, and require a clear line of sight to robust, long-term demand in every deal.

44.01 just made that shortlist.

Hannah Bebbington Valori, Head of Frontier, said: "Where we can store CO₂ shouldn't limit where we can remove it. In-situ mineralization could expand the storage map, making permanent storage practical in places conventional storage can't economically reach. That's why we're purchasing from 44.01: to prove out the technology and ready it for commercial scale."

The storage geography point matters for the market. Conventional geologic storage depends on specific geology; mineralization broadens the map, which could shift where removal projects get built.

What happens next?

Deliveries run 2028 through 2031, giving 44.01 a four-year window to prove in-situ mineralization can hit cost targets at commercial scale. The milestone that decides what happens next: first operating data from the project, and whether the per-tonne cost curve bends far enough to justify Frontier's gigaton-scale conviction.