Researchers from the University of Sheffield are working with US-based CO2Rail Company to design Direct Air Capture equipment which can be used within special rail cars placed with already running trains.

New research shows rail systems around the world could be harnessed to help mitigate climate change and clean our air of CO2.

US-based startup, CO2Rail Company have been working with a world-renowned team of researchers, including engineers from the University of Sheffield, to design Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology that removes carbon dioxide from the air, which can be used within special rail cars placed with already running trains in regular service.

On average, each complete train braking manoeuvre generates enough energy to power 20 homes for an entire day - until now this enormous amount of sustainable energy has been wasted.

If the energy of every stop or deceleration for every train in the world could be captured it would harness 105 times more energy than the Hoover Dam produces in the same time period.

Professor Peter Styring, Director of the UK Centre for Carbon Dioxide Utilization at the University of Sheffield and co-author of the research, said:

“Currently the enormous amount of sustainable energy created when a train brakes or decelerates is simply lost. This innovative technology will not only use the sustainable energy created by the braking manoeuvre to harvest significant quantities of CO2, but it will also take advantage of many synergies that integration within the global rail network would provide."

Eric Bachman, CO2Rail Company, said: 

“On average, each complete braking manoeuvre generates enough energy to power 20 average homes for an entire day so it is not a trivial amount of energy."