IIT Kharagpur graduate develops device to curb air pollution

An IIT Kharagpur graduate has invented a device called "PM 2.5" which he claimed when fitted near the silencer pipe in vehicles will curb air pollution.

Debayan Saha, a mechanical engineering graduate from IIT Kharagpur, who has invented the device claims that one car fitted with the device can neutralise the pollution emitted from 10 cars in its vicinity.

"The technology developed by us uses a combination of electric energy and wave energy to influence the pollutants like PM 2.5 such that they act like magnet attracting other particulate pollutants from the ambient atmosphere to get attached to it. As they grow bigger in size they become heavy and fall off safely on the ground like soil," said Saha, who was also a research fellow at AIIMS who worked on air pollution.

"One car on the street can now alleviate the pollution in its immediate environment, and potentially neutralize the pollution emitted from 10 cars in its vicinity. Diving really deep into the problem they found main culprit is not PM- 2.5 but its tiny size because of which it can easily enter into our lungs and bloodstream," he said.

Saha, is in talks with various organisations, to commercialise the product.

A blanket of toxic haze shrouded the national capital region on Wednesday, as air quality in Delhi and the adjoining areas plunged to "very poor" levels, affecting visibility and causing inconvenience to residents.

The Delhi government attributed the dip in the air quality to rampant stubble burning in neighbouring states, a regular feature in October-November.

The period between October 15 and November 15 is considered critical as maximum number of stubble burning incidents take place in this span in Punjab and adjoining states and is one of the main reasons for alarming spike in pollution in Delhi-NCR.