Green Technology Breakthrough: Giant Vacuum Invention Purifies Air

A team of Dutch inventors from tech start-up, Envinity Group, came up with a solution to minimize air pollution and from which the whole world may benefit from in the near future. The invention is a giant outside air vacuum cleaner that will filter fine and ultra-fine toxic particles present in the atmosphere.

According to the spokesman of the group, Henk Boersen, this purifying system is a large, steel, industrial filter which is more than 8 yards long that will be strategically placed way on top of building structures. This equipment operates as a large vacuum cleaner that will suck in the air and rid it of unclean particles. The distance is covers is about up to seven kilometers vertically and has a radius of 300 meters.

Said to be the first of its kind, this air filtering system is capable of collecting and treating about 800,000 cubic meters of air in a span of an hour and approximately 100% of fine particles and 95% of ultra-fine particles. This was based on the test conducted on the prototype by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN).

Meanwhile, UNICEF had previously reported that one in every seven of the children of the world are exposed to toxic air that is about six or more than the standard international guidelines advice. These findings led the organization to recommend actions to address the problem of air pollution from the governments.

According to Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF, around 600,000 children under the age of five die from unclean air. He reiterated that air pollution does not only harm the developing lungs of these children, but also, is capable of causing permanent damage to the developing brains by crossing the blood-brain barrier.

The problem of air pollution not only adds to global warming. It also leads to environmental risks to health that can include stroke, heart problems, lung cancer, acute and chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma. According to a report in 2014, about 92% of the world population resides in places where air quality is below the guidelines levels while about 90% of EU residents breathe in air with the same levels of particles.

The ultra-fine particles, according to Envinity, are those coming from the emissions of airplanes and vehicles while fine particles are from industrial emissions as well as burning of wood with both being damaging to health.

With the latest breakthrough in technology, advocates for clean air believe this invention will be a big help to the world and to date, businesses, airports and governments are already showing interest in the invention.

Another solution that can mitigate air pollution is tree planting. This was the conclusion is a study made in the United States. The study showed that between 7% and 24% of the air particulates are reduced in an area near a tree.

Meanwhile, another air purification system referred to as “Smog Free Tower” was launched by a Dutch artist, Daan Rossgaarde in Beijing a couple of months ago. With the use of patented ozone-free ion technology, this system can collect more than 75% the toxic air particles and can treat up to 30,000 cubic meters of air in an hour. Although the efficacy of the giant air purifying system from Envinity Group is almost 3 times more efficient, the air purification tower installed in Beijing reduces air pollution nonetheless.