Climate Pledge: Saudi Arabia initiates geothermal and mineralisation pilot projects

Climate Pledge: Saudi Arabia initiates geothermal and mineralisation pilot projects

Saudi Arabia is currently running pilots at two locations to store carbon in rocks using mineralisation technology and has initiated projects to explore geothermal energy, Dr Hussein Holteit, Associate Professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) said.

A mineralisation technology demonstration project with Saudi Aramco is underway at a location close to the Jazan Economic City, he disclosed speaking at an event organised by King Abdulla Petroleum Studies and Research Centre (KAPSARC).

“The idea is to capture CO2 from Jazan Economic City and use water from the Red Sea to demonstrate the potential of this technology in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

“The Kingdom’s subsurface can accommodate the equivalent of more than 1,000 years of its current emissions,” he said adding the country emits around 400-450 million tonnes of CO2 per year just from industrial sources clustered in Jubail, Riyadh and the Red Sea coast.

“The eastern part can accommodate huge volumes of CO2 in sedimentary formations like deep saline aquifers. Although the Western part lacks sedimentary formations, it is rich in volcanic formations and is ideal for storing carbon using the mineralisation technology whereby a natural process converts carbon to calcite and stores it permanently in Basalt and ultramafic rocks,” he