Aramco advances on lower-carbon energy solutions

Aramco inked three MoUs with US companies to develop lower-carbon energy solutions on the sidelines of US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm visit to Saudi, according to a statement. The agreements come under Aramco’s efforts to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and “build a lower-carbon new energy business.” The agreements signed include:

#1- An agreement with climate tech company Aeroseal to deploy its technology to expand Aramco’s fleet and commercialize the technology in novel applications like gas pipelines and localize Aeroseal’s supply chain at home.

#2- An agreement with direct air capture startup Spiritus to explore potential investments in direct air capture to help address challenges related to the implementation of the technology due to its high costs.

#3- An agreement with Bill Gates-funded startup Rondo Energy to explore using the startup’s heat batteries in Aramco’s facilities overseas to slash costs and lower emissions. Aramco and Rondo began engineering studies for the first industrial scale deployment of the batteries that could reduce emissions from Aramco’s plants “with subsequent scale up to 1 GWh.”

What they said: “Innovative technologies deployed at scale can help reduce the costs of reducing carbon emissions, and we are investing in developing these through our R&D, venture capital, and technology deployment programs. We see the technologies of Aeroseal, Spiritus’, and Rondo to have the potential to scale globally, and specifically in the Middle East,” Aramco’s Senior Vice President of Technology, Oversight & Coordination Ali Al Meshari said.

It was busy for Granholm: The US energy official signed an energy cooperation roadmap with Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman last week. The roadmap outlines a timeline for cooperation in “critical projects” in electricity and renewables, green hydrogen, energy efficiency and others.