Air Pollution Recycled and Turned Into Ink With Air Ink

Air Ink is made of air pollution captured before it enters the air

A new innovation makes it possible to capture air pollution from car engines before it contaminates our cities and lungs - and turn it into ink.

Autor*in Annalisa Dorigo, 11.29.17

A new innovation makes it possible to capture air pollution from car engines before it contaminates our cities and lungs – and turn it into ink.

We have already extensively covered air pollution and its alarming statistics in a number of blogs, together with the innovative ideas that seek to report it, reduce it, or prevent it in the first place.

Graviky Lab is an off-shoot of MIT Media Lab, and the company behind the innovation that turns air pollution into ink.

To achieve this they’ve developed a technology called KAALINK whereby a device is retrofitted onto car and truck engines, chimneys and diesel generators to capture soot, or particulate matter – the stuff responsible for air pollution and its effects on our respiratory health.

Once captured, this soot undergoes a detoxification process to remove any heavy metals and carcinogens, and the purified carbon pigment is extracted which is then turned into a “safe, refillable, high-quality, water resistant markers and screen printing ink.”

Currently designed to fit onto the exhaust pipes of diesel trucks and cars, according to their website the KAALINK unit can capture up to 95 per cent of the particular matter pollution before it enters the air, meaning a potentially huge impact on health and quality of life in our traffic-congested cities.

The technology, which was successfully turned into a reality thanks to a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, according to their website has already helped clean 1.6 trillion litres of air.

Currently available as markers and screen printing ink – they claim that 30ml of Air Ink equates to 45 minutes worth of pollution being prevented – work is underway to release oil based paints, fabric paints and outdoor paints too, which would be able to prevent a much greater amount of particular matter being released into our air.

Although a banning of diesel engines and a switch to renewables-powered electric mobility, together with green infrastructure and trees, can offer the only sustainable and long-term solutions to air pollution in our cities, it’s certain that innovations such as Air Ink can be valuable tools in the transition towards an ultimately fossil-free economy, and a proof also that valuable resources can be harvested in the most unlikely places

You can find out more about Air Ink in this video:

TAGGED WITH
This Dutch Company Is Recycling Toilet Paper and Turning It Into Cycle Lanes

Did you know toilet paper can be used more than once? In Holland, a new technology that recycles loo roll is being used to create material for bike lanes.

No Trees Needed: This Company Is Making Paper Out of Stone

Energy and environmentally intensive wood-pulp paper may now have a revolutionary, sustainable and unexpected competitor: paper made of stone.

Smog-Eating-Bicycles to Be Developed in China: But Can We Just Pedal Our Air Clean?

The creative mind behind the smog-eating tower and the smog-jewellery is collaborating with China's largest bike-sharing scheme provider to come up with a fleet of smog-eating bikes for the city of Beijing. But will they just be biting off more than they can chew?

AirVisual: Tell Me Where You Are, I’ll Tell You What You’re Breathing

Good air quality in cities is a real challenge. Traffic, building sites, roadworks, rubbish trucks: the toxic particles that they generate all pose a serious health threat, and it's one that's invisible to the naked eye. Enter AirVisual.

How Green Is E-Mobility? It All Depends on the Power Source and Where the Battery Ends Up

Electric vehicles are currently touted as the most eco-friendly way to get from A to B. But what's the truth behind their supposedly green credentials? We've taken a closer look at their life cycle to see how they really shape up.

The Circular Economy

Visions of a society without waste are spreading!

Got A Smartphone? Then You Can Check The Quality Of The Air Around You

With outdoor urban air pollution increasingly infecting both our environment and our health, maybe it's time for us to take the matter into our own hands, and find out what's really lurking in the air around us. And now there a bunch of apps out there that let us do just that, wherever we are in the world.

When Life Gives You Smog, Make Jewellery

Dutch design team Studio Roosegaarde created a tower that sucks pollution right out of the air, creating a clean air zone even in the most polluted cities. The residues are then turned into high-end jewellery.

Air Pollution

The term “air pollution” conjures up a broad array of images – from hazy smog to acid rain and buildings stained from exhaust fumes. Equally broad are its causes and negative effects on human and environmental health. In fact, the vast majority the world’s population is adversely affected by air pollution, perhaps without even realizing it. The good news is, since most air pollution is caused by human activity, it's a problem that all of us can do something about.