(CNN) — Silver, sleek and sporty, Zem wouldn't look out of place at a supercar championship. But Zem isn't like other sports cars -- or any car, for that matter.
The one-of-a-kind prototype cleans carbon from the air while driving.
Using a carbon capture device fitted to its underside, the solar-powered electric-battery vehicle absorbs and stores more CO2 than it emits. To cut waste and production emissions, the body and frame are 3D-printed using recycled plastic, and the interior is fitted out in vegan leather made from pineapples.
This sci-fi creation was devised and built by a team of 35 students at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, as part of its ongoing TU/ecomotive project, which sees students create concept cars based on innovative technologies.
"We have implemented so many technologies into one car to really show what it can all do together," says Louise de Laat, team manager of the project.
In the future, the students hope their carbon capture technology could be retrofitted onto existing vehicles, and help combat some of the emissions from the one billion passenger cars currently on the world's roads.
The team of 35 students took nine months to develop the car, completing it in May 2022.
Bart van Overbeeke
A carbon-eating contraption
The 2021 team's goal was "zero emissions mobility," which gave the car its name: Zem.
Incorporating multiple technologies from partner sponsors -- such as lithium-ion batteries from Dutch company Cleantron and solar panels from Watllab that provide up to 15% of the car's charge -- the student team is conducting a lifecycle analysis with SimaPro software to calculate the carbon emissions for construction, use, and afterlife of the car.
Realizing carbon neutrality was impossible to achieve, the team set out to find a way to remove carbon from the air instead.
However, the team's device demonstrates a proof of concept. The students are currently applying for a patent, and Laat is planning to develop and improve the carbon capture technology in a spin-off startup.
Zem is 3D-printed using recycled plastic strengthened with either glass fibers or carbon fibers, which the students say cuts material waste.
Bart van Overbeeke
'Moonshot thinking'
The amount of CO2 the student's device captures may be limited -- but this prototype is an important first step, says Carlo van de Weijer, a research fellow at Eindhoven University of Technology.
Weijer has spent decades working in the automotive industry, including executive positions at Siemens and TomTom, and has been a mentor to the innovation teams at Eindhoven for years.
"If you consider that we'll never be a 100% fossil fuel-free, or at least, carbon-emitting free economy, then we have to get (CO2) back out of the air," says Weijer.
Two carbon capture filters beneath the car trap and store CO2, helping to offset the vehicles driving and production emissions.
Bart van Overbeeke
Weijer describes the goal of zero-emissions mobility as "audacious, moonshot thinking" but says that wild ideas often lead to brilliant breakthroughs. If the team's carbon capture technology is scalable, he says that not only could it be retrofitted onto cars, but it could work as a standalone, stationary technology.
"We have gigantic challenges for the future with the environment," says Weijer. "If something comes out of (Zem) as a spin-off, then it would be fantastic -- it can contribute to this huge problem."
Innovators vs. industry
"We hope we can push forward more examples like Zem because we recognize that the industry is moving slowly in sustainability," says Okkels. Traveling from San Francisco to New York, the team met with major automotive companies along the way, which Okkels hopes can spur the industry to move closer to net zero.
Zem isn't road legal yet -- but Louise de Laat says the next student team will work to overcome some of these regulatory challenges.
Bart van Overbeeke
"We pulled it off: 35 students with a lot of eagerness but a lot less experience than the main industry that we are competing with," says Okkels, adding that without regulatory restrictions faced by big companies, they have more room to experiment. "We're just showing the big industry what is possible."
Unfortunately, the team couldn't drive Zem on its US road trip: 3D-printed vehicles are not road legal, so the car had to be towed on a trailer. "The next team will be working together with (road authorities) in this process, and maybe we'll be able to make a road-legal car in the future," says Laat.
Zem finishes its US tour in October and returns to Europe, where future student teams will continue evolving the concept to one day get a fully carbon-neutral vehicle on the road.
For now, Laat is pushing on with her dream of spinning out the carbon capture technology -- and hopes it could help to avert a climate catastrophe.
"Imagine if you could implement this (device) on all those other vehicles around the world," says Laat. "And maybe not only cars, but even trains, big trucks, ships, or airplanes. There are so many possibilities."