Global warming is real, and people are scrambling to do any means to battle against climate change. More carbon dioxide contributes to the greenhouse gases that cause the overall temperature to rise, including smog.
Smog is a portmanteau from “smoke” and “fog.” It’s common in some industrial areas and is detrimental to human health. Smog can come from coal power, factory emissions, and car exhaust. And as more and more people drive cars every day, smog increases.
The type of smog we see today is called photochemical smog. When sunlight interacts with nitrogen oxide plus another VOC (volatile organic compound) in the air, that’s when smog is produced.
VOCs are from free radicals such as paint, gasoline, and various cleaning chemicals. Once the sunlight reacts with these chemicals, these become airborne particles called smog.
The Effects in India
Smog is especially common in big cities with many industrial power plants or factories. More often than not, smog can come from many households. But one concerned citizen in India has devised a method to turn the country’s rising carbon from cars and factories into something useful — like floor tiles.
Indian architect Tejas Sidnal aims to clean up India’s atmosphere by capturing soot and other airborne particles that contribute to the ozone layer. He claims how difficult it was for the country to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. But the country and its inhabitants aren’t looking at the elephant in the room, which is the threatening air pollution that kills seven million people worldwide yearly.
In 2020, New Delhi recorded the topmost concentration of PM2.5 particles. This is 14 times the allowed limit that falls within the safety zone as directed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
India is one of the countries with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths, and New Delhi’s chief minister blamed India’s air pollution.
How smog is turned to stylish floor tiles
Indian architect Tejas Sidnal was devastated to know how hazardous India’s air pollution is. He said it was an eye-opener and that the country and its people can do better.
In 2019, he launched the Carbon Craft Design, a technology used to capture black carbon or smog from India’s polluted air and transforms it into beautiful building tiles.
Carbon Craft Design collaborated with Graviky Labs. It’s an Indian company that captures black carbon from factories and cars and converts the soot into paint and ink.
Now, Graviky Labs has found a way to capture the soot and turn it into powder. By using a filter device to catch black carbon from fossil fuels and diesel exhaust and removing heavy metals, dust, and other contaminants, Graviky Labs then turn the purified carbon into powder for Carbon Craft Design’s perusal.
Carbon Craft Design then mixes the captured black carbon with cement and some marble waste found in quarries. The result is stylish monochromatic tiles that you can use in your homes and buildings.
The architect aims to capture most of the carbon from India’s atmosphere. Plus, he ensures that each tile will have at least 70 percent of these combined waste materials.
Although each tile is retailed on the market for $29 apiece, this ensures that India will have a cleaner and better atmosphere for a healthier lifestyle. This price is higher than the price of regular tiles. However, Sidnal hopes to lower the price of each smog-based tile once they scale up production. Sidnal said that sustainability shouldn’t only be for the elite.
