StreetAlgiso

StreetAlgiso, a series of algae-filled streetlight poles, introduces a new form of urban forestry, equalizes hundreds of trees in constrained spaces, and absorbs enormous amounts of air pollution.

Most metropolitan cities in Southeast Asia are struggling with high levels of air pollution caused by unregulated stubble burning in farms, and emissions by industrial factories. For example in India alone, 356 million tonnes of stubble is burnt each year. The Indian Meteorological Department reports Delhi, which is surrounded by major agricultural states where stubble burning is most prominent, reached a peak AQI(Air Quality Index) of 487 which is considered a highly severe level. 

Today, 4.4bn people live in cities and it is reported that in 2012, air pollution led to about 5 million deaths in South Asia, accounting for 22% of the total deaths in the region. Global warming caused by CO2 emissions is one of the largest challenges faced by the world in its quest to become sustainable. 

Cities have lower airflow due to skyscrapers and urban development, and the high population density and space constraints make it impossible to implement cheap solutions such as trees due to their land requirements, and this is where StreetAlgiso shines the most, Algae uses only 1/10th of the land area and is up to 400 times more efficient than a tree at removing CO2 from the atmosphere when used in a bioreactor.

Street Algiso is an algae-powered photobioreactor designed in a streetlight pole that can be used by cities to reduce air pollution. The pole contains a microalgae solution that absorbs the carbon dioxide in the air and converts them to oxygen through photosynthesis. 

The pole is suitable for very constrained spaces and can even be fit in slums and markets. One pole is equivalent to hundreds of trees in filtering out carbon dioxide and even works at night with plant growing lights, compared to current pollution-tackling measures such as water mist guns which require active manual labor and have limited range.

This solution is aimed to help the populations of highly polluted cities and towns. 

This also includes the flora and fauna of these environments who face dire consequences of pollution, along with structural damage caused to infrastructure by pollutants in the air. 

And with the limited area in cities implementing it in street lights is an efficient solution. 

Our team members have lived in New Delhi their entire lives and have first-hand experience with the severity of air pollution in the city. Every winter, we can see the near-impossible visibility the smog causes and the number of people who have respiratory issues due to it. With the issue getting worse each year, we decided to use our experiences to figure out a solution to help the populations of our community and countless others like it. 

Rayna is a young innovator at heart with several innovations and has experience working with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute. She has a passion for building solutions to help humanity and has been awarded the Young Pioneer Award by the IET (The Institue of Engineering and Technology https://www.theiet.org/) for her BreathingCart - a hydroponics vegetable cart for street vendors. Her innovation BreathingCart is also featured in IEEE magazine. She is the architect for the project and designs the product to best serve the needs of the people. 

Rian is passionate about finding gaps in economic inclusivity, designing solutions through innovations, and the intersection of business and technology. He is currently an undergrad at UC Santa Cruz majoring in Computer Engineering. He is also a researcher working on bioelectronics for tissue regeneration, and his experience working with robotics and sensors helped him build the electronic modules to necessary sense and live algae composition for the effectiveness of StreetAlgiso. He also has experience working in business and entrepreneurial ventures and leads the business strategy. He is also the Vice President of Student Creativity and Entrepreneurial Empowerment, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA.

Most cities have the problem of limited space and the only solution people are aware of currently is trees

we have tested the working functionality and proof of concept and found a 20-30% increase in O2 levels in our testing environment using electronic sensors, and will be approaching potential organizations with more formal research 

Most of the urban pollution reduction techniques specifically in India are

through temporary traffic curtailing, halting construction and manufacturing, sparing mist water on roads, halting the burning of crop residue, etc. 

Some of the long-term approaches are

Modernization of motor vehicle emission, emission control from plants, crop residue management, plantation of trees, etc.

Our approach is a natural approach using science and engineering to reduce city pollution at a low cost and using existing infrastructure.

It is a range of algae-filled transparent street light poles in urban areas that act as tree multipliers, absorbing an enormous amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and releasing oxygen (O2) in a constrained space in urban settings. 

The pole operates at night and even works as a source of light. During the daytime, algae take sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide (photosynthesis) and release oxygen. A plant-growing led strip is also fitted inside the pole to continue photosynthesis during the night. 

The goal for next year is to approach an organization to build Street Algiso and place them beside the busiest and most polluted roads since the CO2 levels there are the highest 

One of the Major goals is for Algiso to be a new form of urban forestry. So our society will start to implement Street Algiso as a sort of alternative for trees since it is way more effective and requires a significantly less amount of land 

As mentioned in our business plan we also hope to spread awareness about algae so that people can build their own little DIY algae air purifier at home 

Our core technology is using streetlight poles as a platform for the algae photobioreactor to reduce CO2 while at the same time releasing oxygen.

The pole is a transparent tube containing a high level of live algae submerged in water. Outside air (mostly polluted) is bubbled through the algae-mixed water. During the daytime, the algae inside the poles act as a bio-reactor, and through photosynthesis, consumes carbon dioxide and releases oxygen. A plant-growing led light is also fitted inside for photo-synthesis during the night time, converting the pole to a 24/7 pollution-absorbing natural cycle.

Algae are aquatic organisms that contain Chlorophyll and carry on photosynthesis. In single-celled green algae, regeneration is one of the most incredible feats. It is sustainable for forests since all it needs is CO2 to regenerate. 

But, How do algae obtain carbon dioxide? From carbon dioxide dissolved in the water.  

How does carbon dioxide get into the water?

The StreetAlgiso uses a water-bubbling system that absorbs air from outside and bubbles it through the water-algae mixture inside the poles.

Currently, our solution serves us and our neighborhood as a pilot test.

By next year we hope to decrease pollution and CO2 levels in populated areas affecting the people in those areas.

Our current barrier is the pre-existing street lights where we will be implementing our idea. Though scientifically proven, we are researching a mechanism for a color indicator that will show pollution differences in the pole itself for validation.

As the primary consumer for this product is local council or society to the municipal corporation, StreetAlgiso seeks partnerships to:

local policymakers and NGOs, and Climate control Innovation conferences for awareness of this new approach.

Rayna Borah is also a team leader in a similar project under the New York Academy of Sciences - Junior Academy. It is a five-member team and is also guided by a mentor who is a retired professor from the United States. 

We are also planning to do some field tests at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, in New Delhi for simulating crop burning scenarios, which is an annual farmer-made phenomenon during the Oct-Nov season in North India, creating peak pollution in sounding states, particularly Delhi, making Delhi one of the most polluted cities in the World.

Street Algiso will be showcased to organizations or governments willing to implement this idea and will run partnership channels with manufacturing entities to produce the patented solution and sustainably run on a commission basis.

The current solutions to air pollution consist of primitive methods such as spraying water mists on roads, which does not work for highly congested areas such as slums and marketplaces. Even trees are unviable in these areas since they require large land investments. The main beneficiaries will be the people and StreetAlgiso acts as a low-cost welfare investment for society to improve their lives and save the environment. The impact of this solution is directly visible through the reduced levels of air pollution and carbon dioxide concentrations, while also providing more oxygen. 

We will also provide the solution directly to the owners of large buildings and factories and reward a form of green certification in fighting air pollution and climate change. We can also manufacture a smaller version for buildings that will act as a small-scale air purifier for homes and indoor use.  

Our main strategy is to commercialize the indoor small purifiers for buildings and factories to fit into their HVAC units, to help fund StreetAlgiso or governmental contracts for setting up StreetAlgiso in the cities, which will be manufactured with partnership channels, and provide a commission-based revenue stream. 

Our major costs will be the production of the poles which are fixed costs, and the recurring cost of refilling them with algae every couple of weeks. While cultivated mother algae culture is relatively cheap, one method in the future may be to extract it from waterbodies that have an overabundance of it due to human interference and eutrophication.