{"id":128212,"date":"2021-08-24T16:54:38","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T11:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=128212"},"modified":"2021-08-26T12:07:53","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T06:37:53","slug":"delhis-new-smog-tower-the-technology-the-impact-the-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/delhis-new-smog-tower-the-technology-the-impact-the-evidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Delhi\u2019s new smog tower: the technology, the impact, the evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Source<\/strong>: <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/delhis-new-smog-tower-the-technology-the-impact-the-evidence-7467471\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Indian Express<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<h5><strong>What is the news?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Ahead of its infamous smog season, Delhi has installed a \u2018smog tower\u2019, a technological aid to help combat air pollution.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 685px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.indianexpress.com\/2021\/08\/smog-tower-model.jpg?resize=685%2C480&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"smog tower, delhi smog tower, what is smog tower, kejriwal smog tower, delhi news\" width=\"685\" height=\"480\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Source<\/strong>: Indian Express<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h5><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>In 2019, the Supreme Court directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Delhi government to come up with a plan to install smog towers to combat air pollution. The court was hearing a matter related to air pollution in the national capital due to stubble-burning in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. IIT-Bombay then submitted a proposal for the towers to the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/central-pollution-control-board-cpcb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CPCB<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Extent of Delhi&#8217;s pollution<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Delhi was the most polluted capital city in the world in 2020 for the third consecutive year, according to a report by a Swiss group (released in March 2021) that ranked cities based on their air quality measured in terms of the levels of ultrafine particulate matter (PM 2.5).<\/li>\n<li>Also, since 2009, an increase of 258% to 335% had been observed in the concentration of PM10 in Delhi, a 2016 report by the CPCB noted. But the most prominent pollutant in Delhi and neighboring areas is PM2.5<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>What is a smog tower?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Smog towers are structures designed to work as large-scale air purifiers. They are fitted with multiple layers of air filters and fans at the base to suck the air.<\/li>\n<li>After the polluted air enters the smog tower, it is purified by the multiple layers before being re-circulated into the atmosphere.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: #f7f2f2;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><strong>Must watch<\/strong>: <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7BFz7o6hlhY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Smog tower inaugurated in Delhi &#8211; ForumIAS YouTube<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h5><strong>How does a smog tower work?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>The tower uses a \u2018<strong>downdraft air cleaning system\u2019<\/strong> developed by the University of Minnesota. IIT-Bombay has collaborated with the American university to replicate the technology, which has been implemented by the commercial arm of Tata Projects Limited.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Polluted air is sucked in at the top, and filtered air is released at the bottom of the tower, at a height of about 10 m from the ground.<\/li>\n<li>When the fans at the bottom of the tower operate, the negative pressure created sucks in air from the top.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>\u2018macro\u2019 layer<\/strong> in the filter traps particles of 10 microns and larger, while the <strong>\u2018micro\u2019 layer<\/strong> filters smaller particles of around 0.3 microns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Likely impact<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Scientific modelling by IIT-Bombay suggests the tower could have an impact on the air quality <strong>up to 1 km from the tower. <\/strong>The actual impact will be assessed by IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi in a two-year pilot study.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Do smog tower actually work?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>This is the first experiment with a large-scale outdoor air-purification system in India. Small smog towers have been raised in the Netherlands and South Korea; larger ones have been set up in China.<\/p>\n<p>As per experts, there <strong>isn\u2019t enough evidence that smog towers work.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Indian Express What is the news? Ahead of its infamous smog season, Delhi has installed a \u2018smog tower\u2019, a technological aid to help combat air pollution. Background In 2019, the Supreme Court directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Delhi government to come up with a plan to install smog towers to&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/delhis-new-smog-tower-the-technology-the-impact-the-evidence\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Delhi\u2019s new smog tower: the technology, the impact, the evidence<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,4182,9],"tags":[380,8659,9296,9295],"class_list":["post-128212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-environment","category-public","tag-air-pollution","tag-environmental-pollution","tag-pollution-mitigation","tag-smog-towers","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1703307026},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}