The world’s first carbon-neutral car that removes carbon dioxide from the air while driving has been revealed

Road transport contributes about 16 percent of global carbon dioxide – but what if our cars could actually capture those emissions?

Student engineers have unveiled their design for the world’s first “zero carbon car,” which removes and stores carbon dioxide from the air as it’s driven on the road.

Air flows through a grille in the front of the car, which passes through a filter that separates and stores greenhouse gases.

The electric vehicle, known as ‘Zem’, was designed by the TU/ecomotive team from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Their prototype also has solar panels on its roof and hood, allowing it to be used as an external battery for the home.

“We clean the air while driving and aim to become completely CO2 neutral,” said team manager Louise de Lat.

It’s still really a proof of concept, but we can already see that we’ll be able to increase filter capacity in the coming years.

“CO2 capture is a prerequisite for offsetting emissions during production and recycling.”

The Zem filter currently reaches its capacity after about 200 miles, when it has collected about 30 grams of gaseous carbon dioxide.

Filters can be cleaned or replaced and the carbon dioxide captured while the electric vehicle is being charged.

While it’s unclear what will happen to the gas after it’s collected from the filter, past projects have used carbon dioxide to make building materials and baking soda, or store it underground.

The team claims that up to two kilograms of carbon dioxide can be removed for every 12,800 miles a car travels annually using ‘direct air capture technology’.

If the technology is deployed to millions of cars on the road worldwide, it has the potential to make a real contribution to reducing greenhouse gases.

The engineering students, who previously made cars made from recycled plastic waste, also designed the car so that as much of it could be recycled when it reached the end of its life.

Its interiors are also made from sustainable materials like pineapple leather and recycled plastic, and its windows are made of polycarbonate.

The solar panels on the roof of the car also enable it to be used as an external battery for the home.

A team spokesperson said: “Another upcoming technology being implemented in Zem is bi-directional charging.

Two-way charging technology enables cars to provide energy to homes when no renewable energy is being generated at that moment.

You can see Zem as a kind of outdoor battery for your home, providing the home with green energy when needed.

Two-way charging technology is paired with solar panels that are implemented on the roof of the vehicle.

In this way, Zem takes advantage of the batteries and the space on the roof to make the vehicle and its surroundings more sustainable, even when not driving.

“We want to tickle the industry by showing what’s really possible,” said the team’s director of external relations, Nikki Oakels.

If 35 students can design, develop, and build a virtually carbon-neutral car in a year, there are also opportunities and possibilities for the industry.

We invite the industry to take up the challenge, and of course we are happy to think with them.

We haven’t finished developing yet either, and we want to take some big steps in the coming years. We warmly invite car manufacturers to come and have a look.

The announcement of Zem comes just over a year after electric car company Polestar announced its plans to create a completely climate-neutral car by 2030.

To achieve this, it hopes to eliminate all carbon emissions from the production process through the use of renewable energy throughout the supply chain, recycled materials and innovative design.