PLANO, TX – Among the major automotive manufacturers, Toyota has been slow to wholeheartedly embrace the industry-wide changeover to manufacturing electric vehicles (EVs), instead working on developing a wide assortment of alternative fuel and electrification options – such as hydrogen and hybrid engines – while only gradually dipping their toes in the EV waters, garnering industry-wide criticism in the process.
However, as EV demand has been slowing and falling well short of projected levels, the flack that Toyota initially experienced for their reluctance to go all-in has been abating, and is expected to continue to lessen in the face of their latest alternative to EV technology: carbon capture filtration systems.
The new tech developed by Toyota does exactly what the name implies: it removes carbon from the air. The system first appeared last year in a GR Corolla race car, coupled with a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain. And while a vehicle with a hydrogen-based engine is already zero-emission, the new filtration system can not only remove carbon generated by a vehicle it is equipped in, but actually from the air around it as well.
This type of technology to capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is advancing rapidly in the infrastructure industry,” said Naoaki Ito, Gazoo Racing’s project general manager. “But as far as we know, Toyota is the first company to test this technology in a vehicle.”
Toyota’s carbon capture filtration system utilizes two filters and a fluid reservoir that effectively serve to capture carbon dioxide from the air, working by utilizing the heat already generated by the engine as opposed to any external power source. The filters were developed in conjunction with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, utilizing tech that is already being applied to modern exhaust systems.
Despite the fact that Toyota tested the filtration system in a zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicle last year, the company noted that it would work with any type of motorized vehicle, including electric and even gas-powered ones. The technology is still in development by Toyota, as in its current form it doesn’t capture the full amount of carbon produced by an internal combustion engine-powered vehicle during the course of its normal operation, but the company predicts they will overcome that threshold in the very near future.
Christopher Boyle is an investigative journalist, videographer, reporter and writer for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® as well as other independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher works on a wide variety of topics and fields, has been featured in print and online in a variety of publications, from local to national, and helps keep a keen-eye on what’s happening in the automotive world for Auto Buyers Market.