New Delhi: Union Earth Sciences Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday inaugurated air pollution control devices for traffic junctions at ITO and Mukarba Chowk in the national capital, an official statement said. The device, WAYU (Wind Augmentation Purifying Unit), is developed by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) as part of a technology development project being funded by the Department of Science and Technology. Speaking at the inauguration, Mr. Vardhan said that the prototype device that has been indigenously developed has the capacity to purify air in an area of 500 square metre.
Union Earth Sciences Minister Harsh Vardhan, who also handles the Science and Technology and Environment, Forest and Climate Change ministries, further added that the device consumes only half a unit of electricity for 10 hours of running and has a maintenance cost of only Rs 1,500 per month. Delhi has been witnessing alarming levels of pollution over the past few years. “We are in the process of developing a bigger version of WAYU which can purify air in an area of 10,000 square metre and also the designs of future WAYU devices will have even better aesthetics and can be deployed in bus shelters, etc.,” he said.
The device works on two principles which are mainly wind generation for dilution of air pollutants and active pollutants removal. The device has filters for particulate matter removal and activated carbon (charcoal) and UV (Ultra Violet) lamps for removal of poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide. It has one fan and filter for sucking and removing particulate matter. There are two UV lamps and half kg of activated carbon charcoal coated with special chemical titanium dioxide.
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