Cost-Effective Air Pollution Remediation Through an Automated Trash-Derived Apparatus

Overview

Every year sees 6.5 million lives lost to air pollution (IEA); 1.3 billion tons of trash are produced yearly, a figure expected to reach 4 billion by 2100 (World Bank). Thus, the purpose of this project is to purify air using trash, addressing two problems using a single electronic device functioning as a public or personal apparatus. Functionally, the device employs trash-derived agents for air decontamination; numerous tests confirm the device’s efficacy in filtration efficiency and smoke removal in direct competition to current industry-grade machines. These tests ascertain an ideal fine filter design for the novel filtration cartridge design of the PEAR (Purification for Everyday Air Refreshment) device, which also includes coarse filtration and activated charcoal layers for air purification. Activated charcoal, which can be recycled from Styrofoam, effectively removes contaminants such as volatile organic compounds (which are emitted by cars and other sources of combustion) through physical adsorption, a process involving van der Waals forces that capture contaminants at the molecular level. The novel trash-based filtration design can be implemented in industry-size applications as well as in personal purifiers. Certain design criteria were fulfilled — including trash usage, purification efficacy (arrestance and VOC elimination), and affordability. Following numerous prototypical iterations, the device fulfilled all criteria, with the highest-scoring design averaging an efficiency of 99.98% 0.3-micron particulate removal. This figure meets the HEPA industry standard of 99.97% removal. Thus, by using trash to purify the air, this device presents a unique approach to the global pollution crisis: using pollutants to effectively depollute the environment. Additionally, specialized sensors were incorporated, connected to an Arduino Uno and smartphone application for remote control. They detect the presence of noxious gases and enable automatic operation upon detection. Sensors also notify the user when the filtration cartridge needs replacement, which ensures that the device’s efficacy does not deteriorate over time; these cartridges can also be recycled after use. Thus, at a low monetary and environmental cost, an easy-to-use and effective air purification device was created from trash. The application of the design in flue-gas stacks as well as incinerator chimneys can greatly reduce the environmental impact of pollution on our planet. All in all, this project intelligently mitigates the environmental consequences of our actions, using trash to purify the air.

Competition history

• AJAS 2019 Category not listed

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Environmental Engineering projects
• AJAS Environmental Engineering projects
• Every AJAS 2019 project