Emissions from burning fuels, industrial combustion and other pollutants mean that over 90 per cent of the world is breathing ‘bad air’, according to the World Health Organisation.
These emissions have an adverse effects on people’s health, and inventors are trying to find new ways to reduce their concentration in the air.
The latest of these inventions is the world’s first giant outside air vacuum cleaner, which has been revealed at a conference in the Netherlands.
The large purifying system is intended to filter out toxic tiny particles from the atmosphere surrounding the machine.
‘It’s a large industrial filter about eight metres (yards) long, made of steel… placed basically on top of buildings and it works like a big vacuum cleaner,’ said Henk Boersen, a spokesman for the Envinity Group which unveiled the system in Amsterdam.
The system is said to be able to suck in air from a 984-foot (300-metre) radius – and from over four miles (seven kilometres) upwards.
It can treat 800,000 cubic metres of air an hour, filtering out 100 per cent of fine particles and 95 per cent of ultra-fine particles, the company said.
These figures were the result of tests carried out by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) on its prototype.
‘A large column of air will pass through the filter and come out clear,’ Boersen told AFP, speaking on the sidelines of a major two-day offshore energy conference in Amsterdam.
Source: AFP, ABIGAIL BEALL FOR MAILONLINE
