While many heads of state are currently haggling over concepts on how to limit global warming on the global stage at the climate conference in Dubai, resourceful companies are silently working on revolutionary, practical concepts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is the case, for example, with Qaptis; a spin-off from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. Its experts have developed a mechanism that can capture up to 90% of a freight truck exhaust’s emission and store the gases as liquid CO2 whilst the vehicle is en route.
In 2022, according to official figures provided by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, trucks operating in Switzerland emitted over one million tons of CO2. In the long term, this will likely go down as electric trucks will replace diesel-powered ones. Today, however, the number of electric trucks on the road is still very limited. In the first quarter of this year, a mere 600 e-trucks weighing more than 16 metric tons were registered in the entire EU, compared to 86,455 diesel vehicles.
From gas to liquid…
And this is where the start-up Qaptis comes into play. Its experts have developed a new decarbonizing mechanism which traps carbon gases coming out of the exhaust pipe and stores them in a liquid state. Following collection, the CO2 is cooled and separated from other gases such as nitrogen and oxygen, by passing over an absorbent powder. Once full, it is heated using the heat from the combustion engine. This releases the CO2, which high-speed turbochargers then compress into a liquid so that it takes up less volume. “We’ve finally completed the first step, which was transferring our core technology from the lab to industry,” says Théodore Caby, Qaptis Co-Founder and COO. “Now, we’ll focus on developing a device that can be installed directly in trucks.”
This said, much research and work are still to be done before conventional trucks are able to operate more sustainably and contribute to capping CO2 emissions. The first milestone was achieved in spring 2023, when a prototype produced the first drops of liquid CO2. The next technical challenge is to reduce the size of the device and shape it to fit different types of trucks. Once this has been accomplished, which is not a too herculean task, say the Qaptis experts, the liquid CO2 will be stored in a tank behind the cab, that can be drained when the truck returns to its starting point. “We initially plan to target local freight carriers that want to reduce their environmental impact,” says Caby.
… to fertilizer or carbon-neutral e-fuels
Next on the agenda is a recovery system allowing drivers to empty their CO2 tanks at gas stations, so that the technology can be employed more broadly. Industries in a variety of countries are currently developing and adopting carbon-capture technology, while others are concentrating on finding solutions for smart carbon utilization and storage. For instance, captured CO2 has applications in the production of food, fertilizer, energy, building materials and synthetic fuels.
Qaptis raised CHF 1.3 million (USD 1.5 million) from business angels and venture-capital funds in a successful funding round in spring. This has enabled the start-up to embark on its next phase of development. “We’re currently in talks with a large local freight carrier that would like to implement our technology soon,” says Caby. “We’ve also been contacted by businesses in Asia; but for now, we’re focused on the Swiss, German and Austrian markets.” One day, Qaptis’ technology could be used for other types of vehicles too, such as ocean vessels, he indicates.
Hellmann partners with shipzero
Meanwhile, 900 km north of Lausanne, the logistics company, Hellmann, based in northern Germany, has signed a partnership agreement with shipzero. That company specializes in measuring and reducing CO2 emissions in global freight transport. As part of the co-operation, shipzero supports the entire data management process and determines the CO2 emissions for Hellmann’s global road transportation. In doing so, shipzero also includes primary data from external logistics partners in the calculation, thus ensuring that the CO2 measurements are based on actual consumption data and not simply on extrapolations and average values, as has been customary in the market to date.
In order to determine precise emission volumes, data is exchanged between Hellmann and its transport partners via the shipzero platform. Consequently, exact Scope 3 emissions are collected per customer, shipment, and route selected. These are then integrated into the calculation of the corporate carbon footprint, external audits, and sustainability reports, thus supporting compliance with new regulatory requirements that will come into effect from 2024. The data-based processing and analysis of transport data enables Hellmann to identify specific decarbonization projects within the supply chain and implement them together with its partners.
