In Europe, transport is responsible for nearly 30% of the total CO2 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 — such as trucks or buses — is a much greater challenge. Researchers at EPFL have now come up with a novel solution: capturing CO2 directly in the trucks’ exhaust system and liquefying it in a box on the vehicle’s roof. The liquid CO2 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 François Maréchal, at EPFL’s School of Engineering. The patented concept is the subject of a paper published in Frontiers in Energy Research. Scientists propose to combine several technologies developed at EPFL to capture CO2 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. To view the full article visit Science Daily.
