China Builds 'World's Biggest Air Purifier' That Actually Works (scmp.com)

The South China Morning Post shares an update on the status of an experimental tower in northern China, dubbed the world's biggest air purifier by its operators. According to the scientist leading the project, the tower -- which stands over 328 feet (100 meters) tall -- has brought a noticeable improvement in air quality. From the report: The head of the research, Cao Junji, said improvements in air quality had been observed over an area of 10 square kilometers (3.86 square miles) in the city over the past few months and the tower has managed to produce more than 10 million cubic meters (353 million cubic feet) of clean air a day since its launch. Cao added that on severely polluted days the tower was able to reduce smog close to moderate levels. The system works through greenhouses covering about half the size of a soccer field around the base of the tower. Polluted air is sucked into the glasshouses and heated up by solar energy. The hot air then rises through the tower and passes through multiple layers of cleaning filters. The average reduction in PM2.5 -- the fine particles in smog deemed most harmful to health -- fell 15 per cent during heavy pollution. Cao said the results were preliminary because the experiment is still ongoing. The team plans to release more detailed data in March with a full scientific assessment of the facility's overall performance.

Comments

Re:Grrr.

[Zontar The Mindless]

You've never been to Beijing, have you? The dome of smog surrounding the city is visible from 100 km away, and it's not caused by a big pile of dirt from the Gobi just deciding it wants to live there.

Bigger Picture

[mutantSushi]

So to have significant effect, such a system would need to be installed on many flat-topped buildings in urban areas, or open ground. If you're going to do that, why not install solar power generators in the same places, which reduce need for dirty power generation? The system is de facto using clean power generation potential for air filtering, albeit in efficient manner (due to direct utilization of solar thermal energy), but I question it's total utility value. China is already pushing electric cars etc heavily so that source is not a long term problem.

I would supposition that plant based air cleaning systems, whethe normal plants like http://mashable.com/2017/02/09... or moss like https://futurism.com/4-citytre... can be installed even more places, even filling vertical walls, effect not dependent on large single areas to support 'chimney' etc, and actively clean the air in even more ways, as well as adding oxygen.

Although on the other hand, the chimney filter system can very well be applied where heat chimneys already inherently serve climate control cooling function for buildings, and designing buildings with this approach in mind reduces need for air conditioning etc thus reducing electric consumption.

Re:Grrr.

[LynnwoodRooster]

I lived in Shanghai for 6 years, and have been traveling to China (and living, at least 3 months each year) for 20. I've been to Beijing countless times. Yes, a lot of it is smog - but when the wind blows out of the West, a lot of the brown you see is actually dust from the Gobi. Much like we get sand in Hollywood Beach, CA and you get dust in your house around harvest time near any wheat farm.