The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (“Aramco” or “the Company”) today announced the signing of three Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with leading US companies to advance the development of potential low-carbon energy solutions. The MoUs were signed yesterday in the presence of the Minister of Energy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al Saud, and the Secretary of Energy of the United States, Jennifer Granholm.
The MoUs signed by Aramco include:
Aerostamp
Following a successful trial of Aeroseal's technology in Saudi Arabia, Aramco and Aeroseal agreed to explore opportunities to accelerate the deployment of Aeroseal's technology in the company's fleet of buildings and elsewhere; conduct joint testing of ductwork and building envelopes across the country to uncover the most notable opportunities; commercialize the technology in novel applications such as gas pipelines; and localize Aeroseal's supply chain in Saudi Arabia.
Spirit
With Spiritus, Aramco agreed to explore opportunities in the field of direct air capture. Spiritus' novel approach to direct air capture could address the major cost challenges of current direct air capture approaches and includes reduced energy needs, passive air collection, and a proprietary absorbent material to potentially eliminate carbon from the atmosphere with up to a tenfold increase in adsorption. efficiency compared to existing methods.
Rondo
Aramco and Rondo agreed to explore the deployment of thermal batteries at Aramco's global facilities to reduce operating costs and support emissions reduction initiatives. The companies have initiated engineering studies for a first industrial-scale deployment of Rondo Heat Batteries that could contribute to the reduction of emissions from Aramco facilities, with a subsequent scale of up to 1GWh.
Ali A. Al-Meshari, senior vice president of technology, supervision and coordination at Aramco, said: “Aramco has stated its ambition to achieve net zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions across all of its wholly owned operated assets by 2050, and sees opportunities to potentially build a new low-carbon energy business. Innovative technologies deployed at scale can help reduce the costs of reducing carbon emissions, and we are investing in their development through our R&D, venture capital and technology deployment programs. “We see Aeroseal, Spiritus and Rondo technologies as having the potential to scale globally, and specifically in the Middle East.”
