Saudi Aramco: striving to reduce carbon emissions
Saudi Arabia’s national petroleum and natural gas company has been harnessing carbon capture systems to reduce its carbon emissions.
Volvo VNL400 Class eight heavy-duty truck
Unveiled for the first time Saudi Aramco has utilised its flagship technologies to dramatically reduce its carbon emissions, to an estimated 50% baseline of the vehicle. The vast reduction is due to the mobile carbon capture system that is integrated into the truck. The company will soon commence road testing as part of its efforts to improve the sustainability of transportation.
Where is the carbon capture system and what does it do?
The carbon capture system sits behind the truck’s cab and consists of multiple components to pull CO2 from the exhaust using an absorbent material. Available energy is then harvested from the coolants and exhaust systems to produce a pure stream of CO2 ready for unloading and reuse as a feedstock for low life cycle carbon materials or for sequestration underground.
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“This system offers a compelling option to reduce carbon emissions from heavy-duty vehicles. It is a potentially game changing technology that offers the potential for deep decarbonization of the transport sector,” said Esam Hamad, leader of the mobile carbon capture program.
Ford F250 and Toyota Camry
The Volvo VNL400 Class eight is not the company’s first attempt at carbon capture research. The company has also looked at incorporating the technology into a Ford F250 and Toyota Camry.
“Our capture rates have improved significantly just in the past few months,” said Alex Voice, lead chemical engineer on the project. “We are excited to continue our activities to extend these improvements, demonstrate the benefits on-the-road, and reduce the system size and cost, while increasing efficiency.”
