Roadside air purifiers failed to curb pollution in Capital, says Union Environment Ministry Secretary

News:Union Environment ministry has said that roadside air purifiers such as WAYU and HEPA filters has failed to curb air pollution in Delhi.

Facts:

About WAYU:

• WAYU stands for Wind Augmentation PurifYing Unit.The device has the capacity to purify air in an area of 500 meter square.
• It has been developed by the CSIR–National Environmental Engineering Research Institute(CSIR-NEERI) as a part of Technology Development Project being funded by the Department of Science and Technology.
• The device works on two principles mainly wind generation for dilution of air pollutants and Active Pollutants removal.
• It has filters for particulate matter(PM) removal and activated carbon (charcoal) and UV lamps for poisonous gases removal such as Volatile organic compounds(VOCs) and Carbon Monoxide.
• The device also has one fan and filter for sucking and removing PM. There are two UV lamps and half kg of activated carbon charcoal coated with special chemical Titanium Dioxide.

About HEPA Filters:

• HEPA stands for High-Efficiency Particulate Air filter(HEPA) filter.
• The HEPA filter sucks airborne contaminants and pushes out clean, fresh air.
• The  filters can trap nearly 99.97% of particles that are 0.3 microns.