Smog towers

Context:

• Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated the first smog tower in the national capital.

More about news:

• If the pilot project is successful, it will be replicated across the capital.
• It can help clean air within one-kilometer range.
• The smog tower is a 24 metre-high structure fitted with fans and air filters and it will draw in polluted air from the top and release purified air near the ground through fans fitted on sides.
• The tower has 40 big fans and 5,000 filters to clean the air.

What is a ‘smog tower’?

• A smog tower is a structure designed to work as a large-scale air purifier, fitted with multiple layers of filters, which trap fine dust particles suspended in the air as it passes through them.
• Air is drawn through fans installed at the top of the tower, passed through filters, and then released near the ground.
• The large-scale filters expected to be installed in the towers in Delhi would use carbon nanofibres as a major component, and would be fitted along the peripheries of the towers, project experts had said, adding that the height of the towers would be 20 meters.

How effective are smog towers?

• Towers would create “clean air zones” in the city. An estimate made of their impact on air quality shows a tower would reduce 50% of the particulate matter load.
• These smog towers may not be useful for the whole city, but they can be useful in creating ‘clean air area’ zones in different parts of the city.

How does it work?

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/if-successful-smog-towers-will-be-set-up-across-delhi-cm-kejriwal/article36054781.ece