Saudi Aramco has presented a unique car that is environment friendly and is capable of capturing carbon emissions. The innovative car was unveiled at the ongoing Qatar Sustainability Expo's Saudi pavilion. The clean car project was initiated in 2004, when engineers from Saudi Aramco started working on the ground-breaking initiative designed to reduce the carbon footprint from vehicles. After years of research and development, a feasible concept was defined and Saudi Aramco scientists got to work in developing a car and have since made significant progress.
The car, still a prototype at this moment, captures its CO2 emissions and stores it. The system enabling this performance consists of three components: a carbon capture unit utilizing absorbent materials from the exhaust stream, a tank used for compression and storage, and a unit that recycles the heat produced by the vehicle to operate the whole carbon capture system without any need for additional energy supply from external sources. At this stage, the prototype vehicle captures 10% of its emissions and the target is to reach 60% in future.
The concept would not be complete without a solution to dispose of the CO2 stored in the car. The project's engineers have determined several ways to dispose of the carbon collected by this future generation car. It is designed for a driver to dispose the carbon captured at the same time when the car is refueled. The carbon captured and stored will then be used for enhanced oil recovery sequestration and industrial use, or converted on site into fuel additives. It is being described as a challenging project and engineers at Saudi Aramco are optimistic about making further inroads.
