The carbon footprint of conventional freight trucks can be slashed by up to 90% with a new decarbonization system developed by Qaptis, a spinoff of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. The mobile carbon capture system traps the carbon dioxide (CO₂) exiting the exhaust pipe and stores it in a liquid state.

The CO₂ collected from a truck’s exhaust pipe is cooled and separated from other gases by passing the mixture over an adsorbent in powder form. The saturated adsorbent is then exposed to heat from the combustion engine to release the CO₂, which high-speed turbochargers compress into a liquid to reduce storage volume in a tank behind the cab.

The stored liquid is drained when the vehicle returns to its freight terminal. Future plans call for designing a recovery system to allow discharge of the CO₂ at gas stations to support broader deployment of this emissions control technology.

Local operators have expressed interest in the system, and a prototype is currently being tested under real-world conditions at a freight carrier based in Switzerland.