From Lab to Exhaust: A Startup’s Breakthrough in CO2 Transformation

Alicja Stankiewicz, CTO, Coat-It
Marek Turkiewicz, CEO, Coat-It

Pollution kills more people globally each year than war, hunger, or disease. And at the heart of this crisis is carbon dioxide (CO2) – the primary greenhouse gas driving climate change.But what if CO2 could be split and transformed before it ever leaves a tailpipe?

That’s the vision behind RainIons, a U.S.-based startup that has developed a revolutionary powder capable of reducing greenhouse gas emissions – including CO₂, NOx, and hydrocarbons – by transforming them into safe, stable molecules. The application of technology is currently being developed further by COAT-IT, a Polish startup specializing in the engineering of high-temperature-resistant coatings tailored for practical automotive applications.

The Science Behind the Solution

The innovation combines pyroelectric and piezoelectric minerals with naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) in a conductive matrix. This unique blend emits alpha particles, negative ions, and electrons – without external power. These particles ionize pollutants and split strong molecular bonds, including those in CO₂.

Independent studies and internal evaluations suggest the solution can significantly reduce CO₂ emissions across a variety of conditions. At elevated temperatures (around 500 °C), reductions have been observed above of 50 %. Even in lower temperature environments (70 – 200 °C), meaningful decreases in CO₂ – typically within a 25 – 30 % range – have been noted, with no harmful byproducts identified. In moisture-rich settings, reductions of up to 50 % indicate that water may play a catalytic role in the
transformation process.

From Tourmaline to Transformation

Inspired by earlier research on tourmaline-infused asphalt, the tourmaline-based “negative ion powder” was infused into a conductive coating and applied it to a diesel muffler. FTIR spectroscopy revealed that CO₂ was being split into graphite and oxygen, with water concentration directly influencing reaction efficiency.

What’s Next?

COAT-IT is now developing durable, high-temperature coatings for commercial deployment. The next phase includes real-world trials using diesel engines and custom exhaust systems. The goal: to quantify transformation products and optimize substrate design for maximum pollution reduction.

If successful, this technology could redefine emissions control – turning exhaust systems into active climate solutions.

Best-in-class Thermal Assessment of Electric Powertrain

Mario Theissl, CEO, Theissl Systems GmbH

THEISSL systems enables precise measurement of temperature and torque in electric drive units with its minimally invasive sensor telemetry technology that is tailored specifically to each customer application. These systems can be seamlessly integrated into existing drive components with minimal need for system modifications, allowing for highly accurate measurements under real-world test bench and vehicle conditions.

With project-specific telemetry units for E-machine rotors gearbox shafts and clutches, the original characteristics of the DUT are inherently preserved while making optimal use of the available installation space. All systems are entirely contactless, transmitting wirelessly to the evaluation unit to ensure reliable performance on high-speed rotating components.

At the core of thermal EDU characterization is the choice of the right sensor elements. Therefore, as a full-service partner, THEISSL systems supports the entire measurement process starting from the definition of test points and the selection of suitable sensors all the way to data analysis after a successful test run.

Even in demanding applications, such as rotor temperature measurements in electric drives, up to 32 thermocouples can be used to gain vast knowledge of the thermal behavior of the DUT. Another variant of our telemetry boards is just 10.5 mm wide, foldable, and bendable around tight radii, which enables temperature measurements on gear teeth and bearing inner rings on transmission shafts. Furthermore, it could be mounted on the rotor shaft, for gearbox input torque measurement e.g. to determine system efficiency.

This measurement technology was implemented in a VW ID.3 demonstrator vehicle, which is showcased at CTI 2025 in Berlin. The system captures inner and outer bearing ring temperatures, gear tooth temperatures, as well as torques at the gearbox input shaft and side shafts. In the E-drive rotor temperature measurement, a telemetry system capturing 16 individual test points was complemented by four additional sensors on the stator windings, giving unprecedented insights into the thermal behavior of the
vehicle’s drive train.

This data, collected over more than 10,000 km of test drives then formed the basis for the training of a Thermal Neural Network (TTN) modelling the thermal behavior of the E-machine. Due to the large number of temperature measurement points, the temperature estimator for the rotor magnets achieved a highly respectable accuracy of ±1.5 K.

Application example: Thermal testing of the electric drive unit of the VW ID.3

A New Material Solution for Low Wear, Low Friction, and Electrical Insulation in Automotive Transmissions

Geoff Lewis, Technical Director, Duvelco

What is a New Material?

Being ‘new’ is claimed with some regularity in the world of polymers; however, step changes in performance are less frequent. Here, I am going to look at an innovation that may pass the test and rightfully be called a new material. The polymer in question has the trade name Ducoya.

In terms of chemical type, it is a semicrystalline thermoplastic block copolymer bearing the unfamiliar name PMDA-ODA or, in long form, PyroMellitic DiAnhydride – 4,4‘-OxyDiAniline. The repeat unit is shown below:

This is a polyimide with an ‘I’; not a polyamide. Polyimides are a vast and rapidly growing class of polymers. The number of polyimide papers written annually has exploded in recent years. Polyimides include thermosets, thermoplastics, amorphous, semicrystalline, and photo-imageable materials.

The above graph shows the number of papers regarding polyimide. Source: Researchgate – Number of citations per year from 1975 to 2019, Web of Science.

Some may recognise this molecule as being from the 1960s; however, that is not the new part. This molecule, initially developed for NASA’s space programme, has long seemed too difficult to source and too expensive for many automotive applications.

This is especially the case as the industry moves into an era of cost-competitive BEVs, and, from a European and North American perspective, an era of low-cost, possibly subsidised Chinese BEV imports to compete with.

So, if it isn’t the molecule, what is new?

The innovation here is a new, patented manufacturing process that also covers the resulting material. Many high-performance plastics, including those produced by the traditional PMDA-ODA Manufacturing method, utilise monomers dissolved in harmful, high-VOC solvents. The environmental and high-cost considerations of these solvents mean they must be separated, distilled, and reused, consuming a large amount of energy in the process.

Ducoya avoids most volatile solvents used in the process and instead employs supercritical carbon dioxide and a catalyst.

Therefore, it is straightforward to separate the polymer from supercritical carbon dioxide by lowering the pressure. The carbon dioxide is repressurised and stored for reuse. This single step greatly streamlines manufacturing at scale, making the polymer considerably more accessible for automotive applications. However, this is not the end of the story. While the original aim of the invention was to simplify manufacturing at scale, when the properties of the resulting polymer were compared with those of its traditional predecessors, something remarkable emerged – dramatically improved mechanical and tribological properties.

The above graph consists of Ducoya preliminary data – arithmetic mean of five specimens, and best traditional values taken from published datasheets, none of which reported data over 260 °C.

The above graph consists of Ducoya preliminary data – arithmetic mean of thirty specimens, and best traditional values taken from published datasheets, none of which reported data over 260 °C.

Datasheet1

Ducoya G021 ISO is a filled version of Ducoya, containing 15 % wear- and friction-optimised graphite. Initial investigations of tribological properties in dry conditions indicate a significant improvement in wear factor compared to the best traditionally produced polyimides of this type. While much work remains to be done with this
specific molecule, this result seems to confirm earlier work by Irisawa et al. on several polymers, showing that the wear rate is inversely proportional to the product of tensile strength and elongation.

Of particular importance is the continued performance of this molecule at significantly elevated temperatures. This is because, when dry friction occurs – whether by design or due to off-design operation under adverse conditions – temperatures on the wear surface can rise substantially compared to the bulk material. For instance, regular operation at 120 °C can quickly lead to temperatures exceeding 240 °C on the wear surface under harsh sliding conditions (High PV value).

It should be noted that this general hypothesis applies only to materials of the same type (in this case, PMDA-ODA polyimides) and only when tested under identical conditions. Further work will determine whether this prediction holds for Ducoya G021 in comparison with other PMDA-ODA polyimide polymers.

Why would this be important to Battery Electric Vehicles?

As BEVs increase in torque, while package space and cost must decrease, this can lead to higher PV values as the available load area diminishes. This also reduces the weight of single-speed and multi-ratio transmissions. Epicyclic transmission layouts may particularly benefit from this improvement. Furthermore, Ducoya, being wear-resistant, although still relatively soft compared to metal, allows metallic debris, such as burrs and wear particles from gears, to embed in its material and be removed as contaminants from the lubricating oil. While this embedding must be limited, removing metallics before they can interfere with the proper functioning of the electric motor – often sharing the same lubricating oil as the transmission – can only be beneficial.

Conclusion

An interesting new material that adds a new dimension to accessibility and performance in automotive applications. Here, we have focused on mechanical and tribological properties.

Future Work

Future publications will describe why this unusual and newly applied process using supercritical carbon dioxide should lead to such improved mechanical and tribological performance.

Opportunities arising from the resulting electrical performance in conjunction with the latest high-precision
moulding techniques will be highlighted.

In addition, test results will be published in which the relationship between t·ε2 and wear rates in various
situations, as described above, will have been investigated.

1 DuPont Vespel® SP-21 ISO Reference No. VPE-A10863-00-B0614 published 2010 and 2021.