RIYADH — Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman on Sunday inaugurated the first Direct Air Capture (DAC) testing unit by Climeworks within the facilities of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) in Riyadh. The mobile unit, now operational, captures carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, validating Climeworks' pioneering technology under the Kingdom's hot and arid climate. This marks the company's first such deployment outside colder regions like Iceland and represents a significant milestone in Saudi Arabia's push to lead global climate innovation. The launch reinforces the Kingdom's commitment to the Circular Carbon Economy (CCE) framework and highlights its pursuit of pragmatic, scalable solutions to meet national and global climate goals. The DAC unit's deployment aims to evaluate its performance in high-temperature conditions, helping assess its suitability for broader application across the region and similar environments worldwide. Hosting the DAC technology at KAPSARC underscores the center's role as a leading energy think tank and an integral part of Saudi Arabia's carbon management and climate strategy. KAPSARC's strengths in techno-economic modeling, policy analysis, and carbon capture research make it a critical partner in advancing the country's net-zero ambitions. The demonstration is part of a broader feasibility study launched following a memorandum of understanding signed between KAPSARC and Climeworks at the Saudi Green Initiative Forum in December 2024. The study explores potential DAC deployment across the Kingdom and supports efforts to localize critical materials and components, paving the way for a domestic carbon removal supply chain. Saudi Arabia aims to scale carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies, with a national goal of capturing and utilizing up to 44 million tonnes of CO2 annually by 2035. Large-scale CCUS hubs are being planned in both the Eastern and Western regions to aggregate industrial emissions and enable permanent storage or conversion into valuable products. The initiative also highlights Saudi Arabia's competitive advantages in leading DAC deployment, including abundant renewable energy, advanced infrastructure, and a strategic geographic position. By aligning industrial-scale carbon removal with economic diversification, the Kingdom is positioning itself as a global hub for next-generation climate technologies.
