College students develop sun-powered car that actually ‘eats’ air pollution as it drives: ‘We pulled it off’
photo credit: Bart van Overbeek
Meet the solar-powered electric vehicle that cleans carbon pollution out of the air as it drives: the Zem Car. This super sporty and sleek Magic car has been described as “carbon eating”.
The vehicle was developed by a team of students at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. The car is suited up with a carbon capture device on its underbelly, and the car’s body isn’t made from materials typically seen on cars—but instead made using recycled plastics made by 3D printers.
Teamwork was the name of the game when it came to development: the base group was a team of students, and partners received sponsor materials. The Zem car has lithium-ion batteries from Dutch company Cleantron, which receive up to 15% of their charge via solar panels from Wattlab, and have had their carbon output studied, lifestyle analysis performed with SimaPro software Thank You for.
The 2021 team’s goal was “zero emission mobility”, which led to the name “Zeam”. As the team worked on this innovative vehicle, they realized that achieving carbon neutrality was impossible without new solutions. So he decided he needed to find a way for the Zem car to remove carbon from the air.
The solution came through two filters under the car, which do their work when the car is in motion. As it is run, air passes through the filter while carbon dioxide sticks to it.
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The filter needs to be emptied every 200 miles, but the Zem Cars team has already developed a solution to ease the potential hassle. They designed an EV charging station that removes carbon dioxide so it can be reused for other clean fuels or stored safely to keep it out of the atmosphere.
The Zem Car is, at this stage, a terrific concept with lots of room to grow. The carbon capture device currently captures only 4.41 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 20,000 miles driven—that’s only 0.04% of the average vehicle’s annual carbon and less than one-tenth that the average tree absorbs annually.
Team Zem continues to work to bring the car up to the level of what they believe is its full potential – carbon neutrality. Beyond that, the Zem serves as an example to the car industry of what is possible.
In an interview with CNN, Nikki Okkels, TU/Ecomotive’s external relations manager, says, “We accomplished this: 35 students with lots of curiosity, but very little experience compared to the core industry we’re competing with. ” “We’re just showing the big industry what’s possible.”
We can’t wait to see the progress made as the Zem Car and it’s carbon removal technology evolves as the vehicle evolves.
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Source: www.thecooldown.com
