Smog tower
Smog towers are structures designed as large-scale air purifiers to reduce air pollution particles, the prototype for which was built in 2017 by Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde, in Beijing.
Examples
Roosegaarde's 2017 prototype was later installed in Tianjin and Krakow.[1] In 2018, a 100-metre (330 ft) tower has been built in Xi'an, Shaanxi to tackle the city's pollution. It is under testing by researchers at the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.[2]
In Delhi, Kurin Systems is developing a 12-metre (40 ft) tall smog tower, called the "Kurin City Cleaner".[3] It is claimed the tower will filter air for up to 75,000 people within a 3-kilometre (1.9 mi) radius.[4] The Kurin City cleaner would be the strongest air purification tower, cleaning more than 32 million cubic meter of air every day.[5] According to The Times, environmentalists "decried" the Delhi project on the grounds that "given the city's size and the scale of its pollution, 2.5 million smog towers would be needed to clean its air".[6]
Criticisms
Some air pollution experts view smog tower projects with scepticism. For example, Alastair Lewis, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of York, Science Director at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, and chair of the Air Quality Expert Group, has argued that static air cleaners, like the prototypes in Beijing and Delhi, cannot process enough city air, quickly enough, to make a meaningful difference to urban pollution. Instead, Lewis argues that "it is far, far easier to come up with technologies and schemes that stop harmful emissions at source, rather than to try to capture the resulting pollution once it's free and in the air".[7] Sunil Dahiya from India's Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air has commented that "Installing smog towers has never been, and will never be a solution", noting that the Delhi tower would be powered by (mostly) coal-fired electricity, "so we will only be adding to pollution elsewhere in the country".[8]
References
- ^ Bürklein, Christiane (2018-02-27). "Smog Free Tower by Daan Roosegaarde in Krakow Poland". Floornature.com (in Italian). Retrieved 2019-01-05.
- ^ Post, South China Morning. "China built a tower that acts like the world's biggest air purifier, and it actually works". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
- ^ Nov 5, PTI | Updated; 2018; Ist, 15:21. "Delhi air pollution: India's own 'smog tower' may help combat air pollution | Delhi News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Made-in-India Smog Tower Spells Hope For Delhi, Can Clean 130 Crore Litres of Air Per Day!". The Better India. 2018-11-05. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
- ^ "This Made-in-India smog tower, dubbed 'world's largest', could save Delhi". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. 2018-11-04. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
- ^ Dhillon, Amrit (24 August 2021). "Delhi unveils 'smog tower' to clean its filthy air". The Times. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
- ^ Lewis, Alastair (25 January 2018). "Beware China's 'anti-smog tower' and other plans to pull pollution from the air". The Conversation. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
- ^ "Smog tower to help Delhi breathe but experts sceptical". France24. 22 July 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
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