{"id":70350,"date":"2020-01-14T07:20:04","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T06:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=70350"},"modified":"2021-09-09T21:23:08","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T19:23:08","slug":"capturing-co2-from-trucks-and-reducing-their-emissions-by-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/capturing-co2-from-trucks-and-reducing-their-emissions-by-90\/","title":{"rendered":"Capturing CO2<\/sub> from trucks and reducing their emissions by 90%"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bildschirmfoto
Credit: Fran\u00e7ois Mar\u00e9chal \/ EPFL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Researchers at EPFL have patented a new concept that could cut trucks\u2019 CO2<\/sub> emissions by almost 90%. It involves capturing CO2<\/sub> within the exhaust system, converting it into a liquid and storing it on the vehicle. The liquid CO2<\/sub> would then be delivered to a service station and where it will be turned back into fuel using renewable energy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Europe, transport is responsible for nearly 30% of the total CO2<\/sub> emissions, of which 72% comes from road transportation*. While the use of electric vehicles for personal transportation could help lower that number, reducing emissions from commercial transport \u2013 such as trucks or buses \u2013 is a much greater challenge.<\/p>\n

Researchers at EPFL have now come up with a novel solution: capturing CO2<\/sub> directly in the trucks\u2019 exhaust system and liquefying it in a box on the vehicle\u2019s roof. The liquid CO2<\/sub> is then delivered to a service station, where it is turned into conventional fuel using renewable energy. The project is being coordinated by the Industrial Process and Energy Systems Engineering group, led by Fran\u00e7ois Mar\u00e9chal, at EPFL\u2019s School of Engineering.<\/p>\n

The patented concept is the subject of a paper published in<\/a> Frontiers in Energy Research<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A complex process onboard the vehicle<\/h3>\n

Scientists propose to combine several technologies developed at EPFL to capture CO2<\/sub> and convert it from a gas to a liquid in a process that recovers most of energy available onboard, such as heat from the engine. In their study, the scientists used the example of a delivery truck.<\/p>\n

First, the vehicle\u2019s flue gases in the exhaust pipe are cooled down and the water is separated from the gases. CO2<\/sub> is isolated from the other gases (nitrogen and oxygen) with a temperature swing adsorption system, using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) adsorbent, which are specially designed to absorb CO2<\/sub>. Those materials are being developed by the Energypolis team at EPFL Valais Wallis, led by Wendy Queen.<\/p>\n

Once the material is saturated with CO2<\/sub>, it is heated so that pure CO2<\/sub> can be extracted from it. High speed turbocompressors developed by J\u00fcrg Schiffmann\u2019s laboratory at EPFL\u2019s Neuch\u00e2tel campus use heat from the vehicle\u2019s engine to compress the extracted CO2<\/sub> and turn it into a liquid. That liquid is stored in a tank and can then be converted back into conventional fuel at the service stations using renewable electricity. \u201cThe truck simply deposits the liquid when filling up with fuel,\u201d says Mar\u00e9chal.<\/p>\n

The whole process takes place within a capsule measuring 2 m x 0.9 m x 1.2 m, placed above the driver\u2019s cabin. \u201cThe weight of the capsule and the tank is only 7% of the vehicle\u2019s payload,\u201d adds Mar\u00e9chal. \u201cThe process itself uses little energy, because all of its stages have been optimized.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers\u2019 calculations show that a truck using 1 kg of conventional fuel could produce 3kg of liquid CO2<\/sub>, and that the conversion does not involve any energy penalty.<\/p>\n

Only 10% of the CO2<\/sub> emissions cannot be recycled, and the researchers propose to offset that using biomass.<\/p>\n

The system could theoretically work with all trucks, buses and even boats, and with any type of fuel. The advantage of this system is that, unlike electric or hydrogen-based ones, it can be retrofitted to existing trucks in order to neutralize their impact in terms of carbon emissions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References<\/h3>\n

*https:\/\/www.europarl.europa.eu\/news\/en\/headlines\/society\/20190313STO31218\/co2-emissions-from-cars-facts-and-figures-infographics<\/a><\/p>\n

Shivom Sharma and Fran\u00e7ois Mar\u00e9chal, Carbon Dioxide Capture From Internal Combustion Engine Exhaust Using Temperature Swing Adsorption<\/a>, Frontiers in Energy Research<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers at EPFL have patented a new concept that could cut trucks\u2019 CO2 emissions by almost 90%. It involves capturing CO2 within the exhaust system, converting it into a liquid and storing it on the vehicle. The liquid CO2 would then be delivered to a service station and where it will be turned back into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,5571],"tags":[10744,10743],"supplier":[335],"class_list":["post-70350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","category-co2-based","tag-carboncapture","tag-useco2","supplier-ecole-polytechnique-fdrale-de-lausanne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70350"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=70350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}