Direct air capture for fleet vehicles

Carbon removal that moves with your fleet.

CarBonne is developing a removable CO2 capture cartridge that mounts to fleet vehicles and uses airflow generated during normal driving. When the vehicle returns to the depot, the cartridge is swapped and regenerated off-vehicle.

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Why fleets

Use the airflow and infrastructure already in motion.

Direct air capture needs to move large volumes of ambient air. Fleet vehicles already move through that air every day, and many return to a central depot after each shift. CarBonne is designed around those two existing assets.

Airflow comes with the route

The vehicle’s motion moves ambient air through the capture cartridge without a dedicated capture fan found in stationary direct air capture facilities.

The depot closes the loop

Cartridges can be exchanged, regenerated, and measured at a shared location the fleet already uses.

The system is modular

A shared depot process can support multiple equipped vehicles while keeping heat, vacuum, and recovered CO2 off the vehicle.

How it works

Capture on the road. Regenerate at the depot.

The vehicle carries the capture cartridge. Regeneration, CO2 recovery, and cartridge preparation happen off-vehicle at the depot.

Schematic. Cartridge, chamber and vehicle shown indicatively and not to scale.

Step 1 of 8
Start with the cartridge
A removable cartridge holds sorbent-coated monoliths designed to capture CO2 from ambient air.
- Modular frame
- Adsorption stage only
Step 2 of 8
Mount it to the vehicle
The cartridge is integrated at the front of the vehicle so ambient airflow can pass through it during normal operation.
- Front-mounted
- No powertrain work
Step 3 of 8
Drive the normal route
As the vehicle moves, ambient air passes through the cartridge and CO2 adsorbs onto the sorbent. No dedicated capture fan is needed on the vehicle.
- No dedicated fan
- Ambient air ≈ 420 ppm
Step 4 of 8
Return to the depot
At the end of the shift, the vehicle returns to its normal depot and the cartridge is ready for exchange.
- Existing depot
- Existing turnaround
Step 5 of 8
Remove the used cartridge
The used cartridge comes off the vehicle and remains linked to its operating data and cycle history.
- Unique cartridge ID
- Tracked through cycle
Step 6 of 8
Install a regenerated cartridge
A regenerated cartridge is installed so the vehicle can return to service while the used cartridge is processed off-vehicle.
- Regenerated cartridge
- Inside the turnaround window
Step 7 of 8
Regenerate at the depot
Heat and vacuum release captured CO2 from the sorbent so the cartridge can be prepared for reuse.
- Temperature + vacuum swing
- Off-vehicle, at the depot
Step 8 of 8
Measure and manage the CO2
Cartridge and regeneration data are combined to quantify recovered CO2 and support traceable reporting before downstream handling.
- Per-cartridge mass balance
- Auditable removal record

What it means on the vehicle

Designed around the vehicle, not around a new process for the driver.

A lighter energy footprint for capture

Direct air capture has to spend energy pushing ambient air across the sorbent. CarBonne captures on airflow the vehicle is already generating, so no dedicated capture fan runs on board.

Minimal added vehicle energy demand

Current instrumented on-road testing shows the installed cartridge tracking closely with the vehicle baseline at steady cruise.

Depot-based cartridge swap

Only the capture cartridge travels with the vehicle. Regeneration and CO2 handling stay at the depot.

Cartridge-level tracking

Each cartridge can be followed through installation, capture, regeneration, and reuse as the MRV system develops.

Who it's for

Two sides of the same cartridge.

A vehicle captures the CO2 and somebody downstream needs it. CarBonne is built for both ends of that exchange.

For fleets

Decarbonize the miles you already drive.

A fleet carrying a net-zero commitment eventually runs out of reductions to make and starts buying removals instead. A CarBonne cartridge turns a route that is being driven anyway into CO2 captured and accounted for against the vehicle that produced it.

This is for you if

You hold net-zero targets and need carbon removal alongside your Scope 1, 2 and 3 reductions.
Your vehicles run repeatable routes and come back to a depot at the end of a shift.
You would rather hold a removal record from your own fleet than a certificate from someone else's project.

For CO2 buyers

A CO2 supply that is not someone else's byproduct.

Beverage carbonation, food processing and greenhouses run on merchant CO2 that mostly arrives as a byproduct of other industries — which is why buyers have watched it tighten and reprice on decisions made nowhere near them. Regenerating cartridges at a depot puts a supply close to the point of use, on a schedule the depot keeps itself.

This is for you if

You buy merchant CO2 for beverage, food or industrial use.
You have seen price and availability move outside your control.
You want supply that is local, contracted, and traceable to where it was captured.

8 tCO2

captured per 100,000 miles driven

Modeled value tied to defined duty-cycle assumptions, not a measured fleet result.

Built and tested

From controlled testing to on-road validation.

We are building and testing the full capture cycle: airflow through the cartridge, CO2 capture and regeneration, vehicle integration, and the data needed to track each cartridge through reuse.

The current CarBonne capture cartridge: four sorbent-coated monolith panels held in a black modular frame. — The current cartridge — coated monoliths in a modular frame.

A full-scale capture cartridge fitted behind the front grille of an instrumented test vehicle. — Full-scale cartridge fitted to the instrumented test vehicle.

Custom wind tunnel

Built to compare cartridge configurations, pressure drop, airflow, and capture behavior under controlled conditions.

Capture + regeneration

Cartridge-scale capture and bench-scale CO2 release have been demonstrated using the current test systems.

On-vehicle prototype

A full-scale cartridge has been installed on an instrumented test vehicle for on-road integration and energy-impact testing.

MRV development

Sensor-based data collection and cartridge tracking provide the foundation for a unified measurement and reporting system.

Concept rendering: an equipped truck parked beside a depot regeneration chamber and CO2 storage vessel.

Team

Built at the intersection of vehicles and materials.

CarBonne brings together experience in vehicle aerodynamics and system integration with sorbent and materials development.

Meghan Kaminski, PhD

Co-founder, CEO

Meghan earned her PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia and previously worked at Rivian in vehicle aerodynamics and range &efficiency. Her background spans renewable energy, vehicle engineering, simulation, and experimental testing.

Laleh Abbasi, PhD

Co-founder, CTO

Laleh earned her PhD in Analytical Chemistry, specializing in electrochemistry, and completed her postdoctoral research at the City College of New York (CUNY). She brings more than a decade of experience in advanced materials for energy and climate applications, including solid-state battery R&D and materials scale-up at Sakuu and LICAP Technologies. Her expertise spans CO₂ sorbent development, electrochemistry, polymer and porous materials, materials characterization, and process optimization.

Our direction

A distributed approach to direct air capture.

We are building toward a system in which fleet vehicles provide the capture surface and fleet depots provide the shared regeneration hub. The goal is to make carbon removal easier to deploy alongside transportation infrastructure that already operates every day.

Work with us

Interested in working with CarBonne?

We are speaking with fleet operators, vehicle integrators, carbon-removal partners, and researchers as we move toward field demonstrations.