Even while courts and state governments ban firecrackers in the name of controlling pollution, stubble burning in the farms in north India, one of the major causes of air pollution, continues uncontrolled. Despite talks of controlling stubble burning during this time of the year every year, the burning of crop residue in the farms in Punjab and Haryana has already started this year. A major contributor to dust pollution is these construction sites. There is a need to prevent the spread of pollution at construction sites. Also, air pollution combined with corona can make it a more hazardous situation. Hence, where there is more pollution, the chances of Covid-19 spreading rapidly are higher, reducing the survival rate.
Air pollution not only impacts health and climate but the economy as well. By 2030, it is estimated that a population of more than 10 million will live in seven Indian megacities like Mumbai, Delhi, and Gurugram where air pollution is highest. GDP loss from air pollution has been quantified by the Indian Medical Council at a stunning figure of Rs 7,182 crore in Maharashtra and Rs58,560 crore in India. Dr. Srikanth Sola, Director, CEO, and Co-founder, of Devic Earth, shares more insight on the same.
- How does Air quality deteriorate in Capital?
Delhi experiences smog (a combination of ground-level ozone and particulate pollution, which involves microscopic dust particles known as particulate matter or PM.), in the months from October to December, every year. Factors such as vehicular emissions, construction activities, the 3000 industries, and power plants emitting fugitives and harmful particulate matter pollutants within and around Delhi, contribute to the ambient air pollution in the city.
More than just a seasonal agenda during winter, we need to have a vision for 2030 with actionable steps to overcome air pollution, that isn’t forgotten in a matter of months. Through awareness drives along with actionable goals regarding the monitoring and controlling of air pollution, we can move towards a solution to the problem.
- How new monitoring technologies can help cities combat air pollution?
The Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) that are currently being installed are extremely helpful in setting up the baseline for air quality monitoring. This is a positive step. However, we need to have more of these to increase the density of hyperlocal air quality and not a generalistic view of the city. These should also be maintained, calibrated, checked from time to time for accuracy, serviced, and verified periodically to ensure that they reflect accurate numbers and are not legacy dependent. More effort should be put in to empower each one within the organization with data to ensure legacy issues don’t crop in and everybody is aware of these technologies, how to use them, pros and cons, and solutions. Only then can solutions and innovators come in and get their share in deployment once the baseline and monitoring are perfectly aligned. We are seeing this positive change happening but there is a huge scope to improve this and move from monitoring only to a solution-oriented approach.
- Competition and differentiator of Pure Skies from Devic Earth.
Our competitors are Praan, Pi Green Innovations, ClairCo, Magneto, and Green City Solutions. Features that make Pure Skies stand out are its large area of coverage, high efficacy, and affordability. Most of our competitor technologies can only cover the area of a tennis court whereas, a single installation of Pure Skies can easily cover several hundreds of acres. This happens through our unique pulsed radio wave-based technology, which works similarly to a WiFi spectrum. Pure Skies is a lab-tested technology and has third-party certification for safety. It works in the WiFi spectrum, which is proven to be safe for humans, flora, and fauna. Our technology accelerates the natural process of the clearance of particulate matter (pm) through dry deposition. With Pure Skies, we have demonstrated results of reduced levels of pm2.5 and pm10, the major and most harmful air pollutants that are invisible to the human eye. Pure Skies significantly reduces levels of pm2.5 and pm10, by 33-90%. This makes our technology an ideal choice for heavy industries, polluted roadways, metro cities, and any other space to combat ambient air pollution.
- As a cardiologist what made you interested in starting Devic Earth?
The inspiration behind Pure Skies was the patients that I saw every day as a cardiologist. Young people come to the hospital with heart attacks, very often caused by breathing polluted air. Often, it would be for no fault of theirs; it could be a driver or a cobbler working by the roadside every day, breathing in air that was badly polluted. A particular instance that hit me was the death of one such young person at my operating table. That’s when I realized I wanted to make a difference for the masses and provide clean air in a way that would be affordable to them. In particular, I wanted technology that could effectively cover a large area and impact the masses positively.
From 2008 to 2018, for around a decade, we developed and tested our product to make sure it was safe, reliable, and robust for real-world conditions. In 2018, we launched Devic Earth and made our motto of “Clean Air for All” a reality.
A new WHO air quality model confirms that 92% of the world’s population lives in places where air quality levels exceed standard limits, throwing a significant proportion of the population at risk. With technology like ours, the health and well-being of billions will be safeguarded.
- How do you see the need for air purification from the pandemic point of view?
Studies from Harvard have shown that particulate matter could act as carriers for the COVID virus and that a decrease in particulate matter significantly reduced the chance of infection. (The Harvard Chan study led by Xiao Wu and Rachel Nethery and senior author Francesca Dominici found an association between air pollution over many years with an 11% increase in mortality from COVID-19 infection for every 1 microgram/cubic meter increase in the particulate matter). In addition, particulate matter in the air significantly compromises our respiratory system, leaving us vulnerable to any infection.
- Could you elaborate on Pure Skies technology and how it is different from others in the market?
Our technology accelerates the natural process of the clearance of particulate matter (pm) through the principle of dry deposition. With Pure Skies, we have demonstrated results of reduced levels of pm2.5 and pm10, the major and most harmful air pollutants. Pure Skies by Devic Earth is the first scientific air purifier that improves air quality by 33-90% over large areas at the lowest cost per unit area. Pure Skies is a non-filter-based, Pulsed Radio Wave based technology for ambient air pollution. This avant-garde technology uses the principle of Dry Deposition that removes air-borne materials from the atmosphere and deposits them on the surface, settling or falling out of the particles due to the influence of gravity. It’s a game changer for sectors such as heavy industries, events, office spaces, ports, and smart cities.
There are multiple technologies to control emissions such as Baghouses, Electrostatic Precipitators, and Wet Scrubbers but there are only a few technologies to control non-point source emissions. Harmful particulate pollutants escape the point source of pollution control and cause damage to human health. Many non-point source air pollution control devices such as Anti-smog Guns, Smog Towers, and Moss air purifiers require high Capex, incur high maintenance costs and provide a limited area of coverage.
- What are your future plans?
Devic Earth aims to become the go-to name for companies across cement, steel, mining, chemicals, thermal power plants, and smart cities. This is a huge mission and the market opportunity is huge. We aim to focus on:
- Increasing our base and reaching out deeper across these sectors in India and becoming the most successful solution for cities
- Serving customers across overseas markets which are mature and are demanding such technologies as Chile, France, West Africa, and Singapore
- Expanding our capabilities to B2C, climate change products, soil, and water through grants, POC’s and partnerships and becoming a 100 crore company in 3 -4 years.
- What are the other innovative green technology products from DEVIC earth?
At Devic Earth, we constantly strive to innovate. Our first goal is to work on Air Pollution control and reduce harmful health hazards and save a million lives each year. To this extent, we have so far delivered 20 million cubic meters of clean air in the last 4 years and have miles to go. We have recently won a grant from the Karnataka State Elevate competition to create a B2C Air Pollution control wearable device, the first in the world. With this, we hope to inch closer to our mission. We are also looking to partner with like-minded organizations for GreenHouse Gasses reduction. This is a cost-intensive exercise and hence grants and partnerships are the way forward for CO2 capture and more to directly combat climate change.
- What technology will trend for 2022 to make the earth a better place?
a. Technologies that are focused on sustainability, reduce costs, and, increase efficiency.
b. Technologies that help Sustainability and CSR professionals to make an impact at the consumer level and thus at the boardroom level.
