{"id":567486,"date":"2025-11-14T17:48:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T20:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=567486"},"modified":"2025-11-14T17:48:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T20:48:44","slug":"device-designed-in-brazil-retains-some-of-the-co2-emitted-by-trucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/device-designed-in-brazil-retains-some-of-the-co2-emitted-by-trucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Device designed in Brazil retains some of the CO2<\/sub> emitted by trucks"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reactor loaded with an innovative ceramic material capable of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) has the potential to reduce the environmental impact of diesel engines, which power trucks, buses, tractors, industrial machinery, and power generators. The innovation is the fruit of a partnership between the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), the National Institute of Technology (INT), a research unit of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI) based in Rio de Janeiro, and a car manufacturer that prefers to remain anonymous. A patent application for the material was filed at the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) in January this year.<\/p>\n

In tests performed in late 2024, when a prototype of the reactor was installed in a truck, the technology was capable of adsorbing 7.7% of the CO2<\/sub> emitted throughout the route\u2014adsorption is the process by which molecules or ions are retained on the surface of a material by means of chemical or physical interactions. The trial used the Real Driving Emissions (RDE) methodology, standardized by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), which measures pollutant emissions from vehicles under real driving conditions. The truck traveled 170 kilometers (km) passing through urban and rural areas and a stretch of highway. Considering only the urban route, the performance was even better, with the retention of 17.2% of the gases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were pleased with the result. Now, we are working to increase the level of capture to 30% on any type of route,\u201d says chemist Jadson Cl\u00e1udio Belchior, of the Chemistry Department at UFMG and coordinator of the project.<\/p>\n

The ceramic CO2<\/sub>-adsorbing material created by Belchoir\u2019s team is produced from a set of mostly inorganic and naturally abundant chemical reagents\u2014the composition of which is being kept secret until the patent is granted. When mixed together, they form a paste-like material that is then molded into hemispherical pellets measuring 1 centimeter (cm) in diameter. \u201cThe material is microscopically porous, which allows CO2<\/sub> to enter and react with the chemical substances,\u201d describes the researcher.<\/p>\n

The pellets are placed in a metallic, cylinder-shaped reactor, the final size of which is still being defined. This, in turn, is installed in the exhaust system\u2014the set of parts that sends combustion gas from the engine to the outside of the vehicle or machine. The ceramic material retains only CO2<\/sub>, which means that the exhaust system continues to require a catalytic converter, a component that reacts with the other pollutant gases (see infographic<\/em>).<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n \n \n \n <\/picture>Alexandre Affonso\u2009\/\u2009 Pesquisa FAPESP<\/span><\/div>
\n

Temperature control<\/strong>
\nIn order for the ceramic pellets to retain carbon dioxide, the gas must be at a temperature below 110 degrees Celsius (\u00baC). \u201cAbove this level, the material is inert in relation to CO2<\/sub>,\u201d informs Belchior. One of the challenges is cooling the gas. Diesel combustion in the engine occurs at approximately 600 \u00baC. \u201cThis temperature drops rapidly and reaches the exhaust system at around 250 \u00baC, still too high to make adsorption viable,\u201d explains the chemist. He also notes that the gas does not reach the reactor at a uniform temperature, which means the portion above 110 \u00baC does not react with the material. The carbon dioxide that is not captured by the pellets is released into the environment, without generating waste.<\/p>\n

The solution found to cool the gas was to install an expansion pipe with a larger diameter in the exhaust system, between the engine and the reactor. \u201cIt\u2019s a common mechanism for increasing heat exchange and accelerating cooling. It works like a radiator pipe,\u201d explains mechanical engineer Val\u00e9ria Said de Barros Pimentel, a researcher from INT. The teams from INT and the car manufacturer were responsible for developing the reactor and the exhaust system, as well as for establishing the RDE methodology used in the field tests.<\/p>\n

To improve the system\u2019s performance and reach the desired target of 30% CO2<\/sub> capture, it will be necessary to further reduce the temperature at which the combustion gas reaches the reactor. The researchers inform that improving the heat exchange in the expansion pipe is one of the study\u2019s priorities. The team from INT is looking at improvements both in the design of the part and in the metallic material used. Another possibility, according to Pimentel, is seeking greater efficiency of the ceramic pellets to reduce the space they occupy and allow the use of smaller reactors, thus extending the cooling circuit before reaching the reactor.<\/p>\n

Lowering the temperature of the gas in the reactor also has a second function: reducing the cost of regenerating the ceramic material. To separate the captured CO2<\/sub>, the pellets undergo a simple heating process. \u201cWhat happens is that the higher the temperature at which CO2<\/sub> is captured, the higher the temperature of the heat source used in the regeneration process must be, resulting in greater energy consumption and a higher process cost,\u201d explains Belchior.<\/p>\n

In an article published in the journal Fuel<\/em> in 2019, the team from UFMG presented details of the regenerative process of the ceramic material, which is essential for its reuse. Still at a preliminary stage, the studies were conducted in a laboratory. \u201cWhen the captured gas is at 100 \u00baC, the pellets need to be heated to temperatures of approximately 340 \u00baC to be regenerated,\u201d says Belchior. \u201cWe plan to reduce the temperature of the captured gas to something between 80 \u00baC and 90 \u00baC in order to reduce the energy consumption of the regeneration process.\u201d In the article from Fuel<\/em>, the authors report that thermogravimetric analysis of the ceramic pellets concluded they can be reused for ten CO2<\/sub> adsorption cycles. Thermogravimetry is a technique that assesses the physical and chemical properties of materials subjected to temperature changes.<\/p>\n

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Jo\u00e3o Marcos Rosa\u2009\/\u2009Nitro<\/span>Research coordinator Jadson Belchior and student Daniele Leal prepare a sample of the ceramic material to evaluate its effectiveness in capturing CO2<\/sub>Jo\u00e3o Marcos Rosa\u2009\/\u2009Nitro<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The proposal by the researchers is to promote a circular economy, in other words to find a productive end use for the CO2<\/sub> captured in the reactors. The idea is to bottle the gas in cylinders and then sell it to food and beverage industries and synthetic fuel manufacturers, where CO2<\/sub> is used as raw material.<\/p>\n

Another challenge for the teams from UFMG and INT to overcome is creating a \u201creactor kit\u201d that is easy to install in the vehicle exhaust systems. \u201cThe system must allow for easy replacement of the pellets in the reactor,\u201d says the researcher from UFMG. He estimates that a heavily used truck will need to replace the material every day, but new rounds of testing with the finished product will be required to determine a replacement schedule.<\/p>\n

In addition to all the technological solutions that need to be found for the innovation to reach users, the economic feasibility study of the process has yet to be developed. The scientists expect the system to have a low final cost, since the chemical substances and the metal parts used are readily available and inexpensive.<\/p>\n

The CO2<\/sub> adsorber project was submitted to the Rota 2030 \u2013 Mobility and Logistics Program, a Federal Government program that supports technological development in the automotive sector. In 2024, Rota 2030 was replaced by the Green Mobility and Innovation Program (MOVER). Among the targets established by the successor program is the need for participating automakers to reduce carbon emissions from their vehicles by 50% by 2030, compared to emissions in 2011.<\/p>\n

However, greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector are growing. According to the Climate Observatory\u2019s Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals Estimating System (SEEG), the emissions from this activity in Brazil increased 3.2% in 2023 and reached a record of 223.9 million tons of CO2<\/sub> equivalent\u2014an international measurement that establishes the equivalence between all greenhouse gases (methane, nitrous oxide, and others) and CO2<\/sub>. Cargo transport was the main contributor to the increase. That year, Brazil emitted 2.67 billion tons of CO2<\/sub> equivalent.<\/p>\n

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Jo\u00e3o Marcos Rosa\u2009\/\u2009Nitro<\/span>The pellets are deposited in the prototype reactor installed in the exhaust of a truckJo\u00e3o Marcos Rosa\u2009\/\u2009Nitro<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe development of technologies capable of capturing CO2<\/sub> directly from moving sources, such as trucks, is of great importance given the current challenges of decarbonizing the transportation sector,\u201d says chemist Pedro Vidinha of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP) and researcher at the Research Center for Innovation in Greenhouse Gases (RCGI), supported by FAPESP.<\/p>\n

In Vidinha\u2019s assessment, the work carried out by UFMG and INT is promising, as it proposes an innovative and potentially adaptable solution to the reality in Brazil. \u201cThe possibility of capturing up to 17% of the CO2<\/sub> emissions directly from a vehicle\u2019s exhaust represents significant progress,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Belchior\u2019s team began developing ceramic materials capable of capturing CO2<\/sub> in 2007. The group has already filed 21 patent applications, including the current project. Of these, 11 patents have been granted, seven of them in the USA. The first was filed when the team managed to capture the gas at a temperature of 600 \u00baC. It was more of a feasibility test, since CO2 <\/sub>captured at that temperature makes the regeneration process of the ceramic material inviable.<\/p>\n

A second phase of the project took place between 2015 and 2018, funded by Petrobras, Fiat (now Stellantis), and the Minas Gerais State Research Foundation (FAPEMIG). During this time, the team managed to lower the process temperature to 300 \u00baC, which is still too hot to make the process viable. At the time, calcium oxide (CaO) was the main chemical substance used to produce the ceramic material, as described in an article published in International Nano Letters<\/em> in 2020. The UFMG group\u2019s experience earned them the 2019 Petrobras Inventor Award. The focus of the project, on this occasion, was the capture of CO2<\/sub> resulting from the combustion of gasoline and ethanol.<\/p>\n

The current project, which aims to capture CO2<\/sub> in diesel engines, required the group to carry out new research on suitable chemical substances for the process. Focusing on capturing diesel emissions aligns with the interests of the initiative\u2019s partner automaker. Belchoir\u2019s personal goal is to give a practical presentation of the system, already with the necessary improvements, during the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP30, to be held in Bel\u00e9m, Par\u00e1 State, at the end of year.<\/p>\n

The story above was published with the title “Capturing CO2<\/sub><\/strong>” in issue 351 of May\/2025.<\/p>\n

Scientific articles<\/strong>
\nPINTO, P. C. C. et al<\/em>. CO2<\/sub> capture performance and mechanical properties of Ca(OH)2-based sorbent modified with MgO and (NH4)2HPO4 for calcium looping cycle.<\/a> Fuel<\/strong>. Vol. 256. Nov. 2019.
\nOLIVEIRA, H. et al<\/em>. Improvement on CO2<\/sub> capture by CaO pellet modified with carbon nanotubes<\/a>. International NanoLetters<\/strong>. Vol. 10, pp. 141\u20139. June 2020.
\nPINTO, P. C. C. et al<\/em>. Chemical absorption of CO2<\/sub> enhanced by solutions of alkali hydroxides and alkoxides at room temperature<\/a>. Chemistry Select<\/strong>. Vol. 7, pp. 1\u201311. Nov. 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"System captured up to 17% of gas emissions from diesel engines in real-world tests","protected":false},"author":538,"featured_media":567502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[259,228,243,2413],"coauthors":[1346],"class_list":["post-567486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-chemistry","tag-engineering","tag-innovation","tag-technology","position_at_home-sumario"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/538"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":567527,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567486\/revisions\/567527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567486"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=567486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}