Ambient Air Pollution Curtailer

The major setback with conventional air pollution control devices are essentially fixated on entrapment of fine particulate matter (PM) of 2.5 – 10 mm diameter. Other industrial filters do focus on toxic gases such as Sulphur oxides, nitrous oxides and carbondioxide, despite the fact that there is constant inclination in levels of such toxic pollutants. Ambient Air Pollution Curtailer (AAPC), expands its grip towards plethora of pollutants. Entrapment of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, dangerous greenhouse gases which are a major cause of global warming is attended. With establishment of thousands of such AAPC units in an urbanized area, pre-industrial air quality can be obtained which is highly economical. As air pollution is the most leading environmental risk in Bangladesh leading to 21% of all deaths in the country, our device efficiently works on forbidding toxic pollutants into the atmosphere allowing citizens of Bangladesh to breathe cleaner and healthier air. 

With the rapid growing population India has major battle with air pollution. Out of 132 countries assessed by Yale and Columbia, India ranked last indicating that we have the most polluted air. Particulate matter, one of the most widely monitored pollutants in India is the main cause of increasing air pollution in the south Asian sub-continent. Bangladesh is one of the four most polluted countries in the world. It is followed by Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Bahrain. About 21% of all deaths in the country is due to air pollution and 1.2 million people died due to pollution causing diseases. Lancet Planetary Health surveyed that out of the 1.2 million deaths 51.4 % were younger than 70 years. Across Bangladesh 28% of all deaths are from diseases caused by pollution compared to 16% global average. Air pollution takes 1,23,000 lives in Bangladesh in 2017. The main contributing factor that cause devastating air pollution is burning of fossil fuels like coal and petroleum. Others include exhaust from factories and industries, mining operations and agricultural activities. Our device is a solution for all these contributing factors.

We focus on population in rural and urban areas who are exposed to high pollution. Chronic air pollution results in heart diseases, lung cancer, respiratory diseases like emphysema and can also cause long term nerve damage, brain, kidneys, liver and birth defects. A survey is being conducted in the urban and rural areas with respect to the health effects caused due to pollution exposure, through which inputs regarding their illness was put forth. Each conventional device works on its own concept and basic design, particularly in its own field to reduce a type of pollutant. An industrial ESP reduces particulate matter emissions, techniques such as pressure and thermal swing adsorption for carbon capture and sequestering, nonetheless there is no device working to encompass air pollution as a whole with a single go. AAPC is can be a sole step for taking such bold and decisive action against air pollution, by its unique technology for capturing of PM, toxic pollutant gases, sequestration of carbon dioxide producing oxygen as a by-product. The significant issue being attended is entrapment of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. With establishment of thousands of such AAPC units in an urbanized area, pre-industrial air quality can be obtained. 

The main benefits of AAPC is that, it captures the pollutants which could have been lodged in lungs of millions of people and converting it into natural oxygen and each individual unit is capable of sequestering carbon dioxide as equal as 17000 fully grown trees. Oxygen generation is made possible through a characteristic natural process, in the meantime a by-product for the production of bio fertilizers is formed. This device is very economical, has a very long-life expectancy along with very low maintenance cost once after installation. AAPC works on various simple and straight-forward phenomena in an orderly fashion to put forth maximum efficiency of the designed concept. Initially, we have an electrostatic precipitator (ESP), for the entrapment of PM2.5 and PM10. The design of ESP has a unique serrated or zigzag material design, providing a natural riverlike flow to the entering air (polluted). Once, the air passes ESP, it is free of the PM, now entering a catalytic convertor containing a chemically impregnated sorbent of both oxidative and reductive property, for conversion of carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide. Catalytic convertors work efficiently at normal atmospheric temperatures, additionally it not made of precious metals (platinum, rhodium etc.,) Hence, Sulphur does not react with it, preventing permanent damage and increasing the economic viability of the device. The passage between the ESP and catalytic convertor is barred with pre-filters, preventing the entry of extraneous matter into the solvent chamber. When polluted air enters with a push force into solvent chamber huge pressure is created inside, resulting in vigorous stirring of the solvent. High pressure and such constant vigorous stirring will cause a reaction among pollutant gases and solvent resulting in entrapment of pollutant gases. This treated air now enters into the final chamber consisting of a natural organic substance which will sequester the remaining amount of carbon dioxide and other gases resulting in the production of oxygen. Additionally, the natural organic substance has a capability of being used as bio-fertilizer, once after its biomass increases to a considerable amount. 

AAPC works on various simple and straight-forward phenomena in an orderly fashion to put forth maximum efficiency of the designed concept. Initially, we have electrostatic precipitator (ESP), which is highly economical for entrapment of PM2.5 and PM10. The design of ESP is quite unique, the material used here is placed in a serrated or zigzag, providing a natural river-like flow to the entering air (polluted). Once, the air passes ESP, it is free of PM, now entering a catalytic convertor containing a chemically impregnated sorbent of both oxidative and reductive property, for conversion of carbon monoxide into carbondioxide. The catalytic convertor installed in AAPC, is not a regular type. It works with the same efficiency as regular catalytic convertors at normal atmospheric temperatures, additionally as it not made of precious metals (platinum, rhodium etc.,), Sulphur does not react with it, preventing permanent damage and increasing the economic viability of the device. The passage between the ESP and catalytic convertor is barred with pre-filters, preventing the entry of extraneous matter into the solvent chamber. As, the polluted air is entering with a push force into solvent chamber, huge pressure is created inside, resulting in vigorous stirring of the solvent. High pressure and such constant vigorous stirring will cause a reaction among pollutant gases and solvent. Finally resulting in entrapment of pollutant gases. This treated air now enters into final chamber consisting of natural organic substance which will sequester the remaining amount of carbondioxide and other gases resulting in production of oxygen.

Health effects of air pollution range from increased hospital admissions and emergency room visits, to increased risk of premature deaths. Long-term exposure can lead to permanent health effects such as accelerated aging of lungs, decrease or loss of lung function, asthma and such other health risks. An estimate of 4.2 million premature deaths are linked to ambient air pollution. AAPC results in positive outcomes by sequestering all the noxious gases, particulate matter and other pollutants. Production of oxygen by sequestering of pollutants provides us an edge over current anti-pollution measures. This results in a concurrent event of improved societal health with reduced risks of premature deaths, respiratory problems and stress related problems. In a big picture, acid rains and its cumulative effects are also mitigated saving the economic loss of infrastructure and possible health hazards.

Our R&D and manufacturing partner, Excel Tech Private Ltd, is currently serving approximately 300 consumers, by providing various solutions for clean air and clean water. Once the final prototype of AAPC is achieved, Excel Tech would initiate the launch across 6 top-polluted cities of India, with their wide customer base, targeting the initial installation of 100 AAPC units across each city, which would be increased during the next one year.

By the end of 2020, we plan to implement AAPC in Bangalore – Karnataka state, one of the most polluted cities in India, through a thousand devices we can meaningfully affect lives of 12.5 million people. In the next five years, we plan upon scaling up to cover 5 most polluted cities in India which include Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai with a populace of 19 million, 22.5 million, 6.8 million, 12.24 million and 10.7 million respectively. Along these lines, with the use of Ambient Air Pollution Curtailer we are resolved to deliver our service to large masses up to 80+ million by 2025 in six cities of India.

Exceltech, along with product development has parallelly initiated the process of ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation), BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards), PCB (Pollution control Board) certification for its manufacturing in Indian market. Also, for capturing overseas market we are working on required certifications in Bangladesh, USA, Singapore. For scaling up AAPC a plethora of options are being proposed including OEM/ODM, collaborations with large scale manufacturers, patenting and copyrights, technology transfer and self-branding. For self-branding social media marketing, telemarketing is being done for awareness. AAPC directly impacts the life of people by improving the environmental conditions, in-turn improving the environmental health benefits and reducing the health risk of ambient air pollution. In other aspects, collaborations or self-manufacturing for AAPC production requires a large setup and manpower, which will create numerous job opportunities and improve the well-being of many public sectors.

Current barriers exist include financial, and legal aspects. To achieve the goals set by the company and deploy the product into market large amount of funding is required. Ample amount of manpower is vital to scale up the production with various materials. Legal certification and validations from national authority boards such as BIS, ISO, PCB require financial support with a time frame of 6 months. Such barriers need to be assessed to ramp up the development process of proof of concept which will take about 6-12 months’ time period. To manage this time period along with research and development, branding, certification activities company requires about 2.5 million dollars.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Scaling up to manufacturing and customer service requires large amount of capital with optimized cash flow to satisfy the customer requirements with quality control and assurance so as to maintain a constant supply and dedicated service.

Financial barriers: Exceltech is trying to approach different sources for funding like various government and private grants. We are also approaching different venture capitals for equity-based funding besides angel investors among the contacts through tertiary sources and some of them through the company sources. Exceltech has various other products which are being commercialized and generating revenue for the company. Company is in profits with this product revenue, these profits are being used for the initial stages of the product development. After pursuing the grants or funding from any of the sources these will be used for Research and development. The funds will also be used for manufacturing the devices, for branding the product, for the certifications which need to launch the product into the market.

Legal Barriers: This includes the certification approvals like ISO, BIS, PCB certification which are given based on the product quality and its service. AAPC will have all the quality control studies done before going for ISO and BIS certifications to avoid any rejections from the same.

Air pollution takes 1,23,000 lives in Bangladesh in 2017. Treatment and time costs of illness due to air pollution is about USD 130 million per annum. Economic loss is equivalent to 3.4% of GDP of that year. With all these health and economic risks created by air pollution, Bangladesh has a huge market potential for AAPC. Production of AAPC is economic compared to other anti-pollution devices, also while other devices have their prime focus on only the industrial air pollution or vehicular pollution. 

Currently, we have 7 members working full time on the solution.

Exceltech is in pursuit to provide clean and healthy air to people and is doing it for 5 years by developing top quality air filters for industrial purposes. We have a core team with 100-man years of experience in mechanical, biotechnology and electronics field. Under the guidance of this core team we have a group of experienced engineers and work force, who follow the best manufacturing process in the industry to deliver the best quality products to our customers. Core team of Exceltech is led by its Managing director with an experience of 23+ years in developing HEPA filters along with aspiring entrepreneur with patented anti-pollution technology, Dr. Surya Prakash in the field of air pollution. We are also introducing latest manufacturing process and machineries to meet customer's additional requirements. We are equipped with state-of-the-art design, development and testing facility for auto electronic and industrial electronic products.

Exceltech is currently not partnering with anyone for this solution.

Current pollution curtailing devices focus only towards automobile or industrial pollution, while ambient air being neglected causes a huge problem as the ambient air is the one being taken in by the humans. Exceltech’s AAPC has an edge over existing technologies as it can sequester any type of noxious gases, pollutants and releases oxygen into the environment for improved health in its surroundings. Impact of AAPC can be measured by gradually reduced statistics of risks, diseases and patient admittance in hospital due to air pollution. AAPC is a service-based product with exceptional benefits for public majorly from urban areas, government economy by reduced expenditure on healthcare and producing job opportunities. Key resources and activities include R&D personnel and product design engineers for research and product development, business strategist personnel for optimizing cash flow, team management and brand awareness, collaborations with IIT and other prestigious universities for research and product development. Collaborations with Biotech labs and outsourcing for manufacturing for future purposes. This can be bought into force by collaborations with government bodies, NGOs or technology transfer with manufacturing giants. Business strategies are being developed for the surplus for overseas expansion and optimized cashflow for scaling up in Bangladesh, Singapore initially with later on with different countries. Materials and resources require 53% of total cost structure, 5% for certifications, 10% for branding, 10% for R &D, other costs 5% with a margin of 17% profit.

We will apply for various grants and will approach venture capitalists. We will sell the product to B2B and B2C.

Exceltech's aim to take the product across the world. to achieve this various modification have to be done to the prototype. Later the prototype needs to undergo alpha beta testings and should show positive results. After achieving this step, Prototype is subjected for approval of certification to get the product into the market. To achieve this huge funding, good traction, awareness, work space at Bangladesh, good mentor-ship and need a support for IP filing is required. Tiger challenge will back us to achieve these barriers to fulfill and enter into the selected markets of the interest.