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Could Supersize Air Purifiers Clean Beijing’s Air?

Dutch architects have produced a giant air filter that sucks in pollutants and blows out clean air.

Air purifiers are adept at removing particles from rooms and buildings. Why not apply the same concept to entire cities?
A product may be on its way. Beth Walker reports for Chinadialogue that Dutch architects have designed a smog-eating tower that can suck pollutants out of the sky in Beijing and other metropolises.

The designers engineered their wind- and solar-powered “Smog Free Tower” with the foul air that plagues China’s capital in mind, the article says. The city already has expressed interest in possibly deploying the technology.

Dubbed the world’s largest purifier, the tower stands about one story tall. It inhales polluted air, uses filters to remove harmful particles and blows out fresh air that’s 75 percent cleaner, according to Chinadialogue. The designers raised money for the project on Kickstarter and debuted their innovation on September 5 in Rotterdam, their hometown.

The towers may prove popular for another reason. “The harvested smog will be compressed into cubes that will be used to make quirky jewelry,” Walker notes.


Read the full story here.
This article originally appeared on Citiscope. Citiscope is a nonprofit news outlet that covers innovations in cities around the world. More at Citiscope.org.