When I first began reading about ‘direct air capture’ – removing CO2 from the air – I remember seeing a lot of stories that said something like ‘this is interesting but it will never be practical’. But there were also stories that said this is going to be as big an opportunity as Henry Ford’s Model T.  Several major prize competitions have been accelerating things..

This year has been a winning one for Project Hajar, which is combining direct air capture and mineralization, in Oman. It brings together Mission Zero Technologies, and 44.01, which just won of the five Earthshots 2022 prizes for speeding up the natural process by which CO2 turns into a mineral that is extremely common in Oman.