Know More About India’s first ‘Smog Tower’

Know More About India’s first ‘Smog Tower’

BJP MP Gautam Gambhir, former cricketer, on January 3rd, Friday inaugurated a prototype air purifier at Lajpat Nagar in the national capital. In November 2019, the Supreme Court directed the Centre and the Delhi government to prepare a plan to install ‘smog towers’ across the capital to deal with air pollution. The smog-tower at Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar becomes India’s first ‘smog tower’ air-purifier.

Smog towers are designed to work as large-scale air purifiers. Fitted with multiple layers of air filters which can clean the air pollutants as it passes through them. The new installed smog tower is capable of treating 6,00,000 cubic metres of air per day and can collect more than 75 per cent of particulate matters (PM) 2.5 and 10. After the cleaning, it releases clean air.

Kejriwal government is planning to install a smog tower at Central Park in Connaught Place. The 65 feet high tower will trap PM of all sizes suspended in the air. Large scale air filters draw the air through fans installed at the top before passing it through the filters and releasing it near the ground. Nanofibres as a major component used by the filters installed in the tower and will be fitted along its peripheries. The primary of function of the tower is to reduce particulate matter load.

The project is a collaboration between the IIT-Delhi, IIT-Bombay, University of Minnesota and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the latter helped to design similar tower of over 100 meters in China’s Xi’an city.

China, battling air pollution for years, has two towers in its capital Beijing and in the northern city Xi’an. The Xi’an tower is the world’s largest, has reportedly brought down 2.5PM by 19 per cent in an area of 6 sq. kms in its vicinity. The 328 feet (100m) high tower has produced over 10 million cubic metres of clean air every day since its launch and can bring air at moderate levels during severely polluted days, said South China Morning Post.

Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde built the tower in Beijing, can compress the carbon waste generated during purification to produce gemstones, according to the TED Conferences website. The smog particles turn into dark gems when compressed for 30 minutes, which are used for rings and cufflinks.