Tokyo (SCCIJ) – The young Swiss company Qaptis has developed a plug-in technology capable of capturing 90% of the CO2 emitted by internal combustion engines at the source, mainly in trucks and boats. Qaptis is a spin-off company of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).
The Swiss “kit” invented by the start-up Qaptis captures the CO2 of combustion engines at the source (© EPFL News).
Smart solution
There are approximately 350 million trucks and 95,000 cargo ships in the world. Together they emit 3,440 megatons of CO2 per year, accounting for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet no solution has yet been found to decarbonize these sectors quickly and easily.
Hydrogen-powered trucks require not only infrastructure changes – 99% of this new fuel is made with fossil fuel-generated electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Green hydrogen requires a huge amount of renewable energy. Besides, hydrogen solutions need the construction of a complete fueling network.
At the same time, electric trucks are not suitable for long distances. Their huge batteries considerably reduce the payload and therefore the amount of goods transported. Moreover, the recharge of electric trucks time is still very long, according to experts 4 to 8 hours.
A “kit” system
This is where Qaptis’ system, called “kit”, comes in. It allows for capturing up to 90% of CO2 emissions – as well as nitrogen oxides. Qaptis’ innovation lies in utilizing the engine’s heat to spin the kit and capture the CO2 as it leaves the exhaust pipe.
Installation on existing vehicles is very simple and, thanks to its low weight, the kit impacts barely the fuel consumption. Once captured, the CO2 is compressed to liquid form and stored directly on board, before being collected (for example, at gas stations). It can then be recycled in various ways or sold to CO2 end-users.
As a result, Qaptis offers an attractive alternative to significantly reduce a fleet’s greenhouse gas emissions without having to replace the vehicles and the whole infrastructure for the distribution of fuel or electricity.
Numerous awards
Born out of the Laboratory of Industrial Process and Energy Systems Engineering (IPESE) at the EPFL Valais Wallis campus in Sion, Qaptis has filed a patent, validated in 2019, to protect its technology.
The Valais-based startup founded in 2021 went on to win the RIE award from the Association for Energy Research and Innovation and took third place in the global finals of Climate LaunchPAD, one of the most competitive contests for sustainable startups.
Crowdfunding success
The company is also supported by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment and The Ark Foundation and has participated in the EIC Climate-Kic maritime accelerator. In April 2022, Qaptis also ran a successful crowdfunding campaign and raised around CHF 25,000.
Looking ahead, Qaptis plans to validate its technology and production plan within three years. In particular, the FIT Tech Seed loan will help the startup finance the development of its prototype. In 2023, the Valais-based company intends to raise Seed funds and realize its minimum viable product, to launch the production of its kit in the following years.
SCCIJ based on EPFL News
