Orders are being taken on Kickstarter for a new appliance that appears to successfully remove NO2 and other traffic pollutants from the interior of cars.
Having so far garnered impressive testimonials from the likes of air monitoring firm Enviro Technology Services (ETS), the unit appears to be the real deal.
The brainchild of London and Copenhagen-based startup Airlabs, the Airbubbl system is a light and portable unit incorporating a particle filter – to remove particulate matter like soot and brake dust – and a proprietary “nano-carbon gas filter“ which seemingly removes high levels of NO2 and other gases.
It is claimed to remove more than 95% of NO2 in the car cabin, in addition to other pollutants including VOCs, as well as bacteria and odours, seemingly.
As the firm says: “The air inside your car is only as clean as the exhaust from the car in front. Your air conditioning doesn’t remove pollution – it brings it into your car!” Air circulating inside the car is often worse than that on the street, since the car’s air intake is directly behind the car in front’s exhaust pipe.
There also seems to be something in the design that imparts direction to the air flowing through the unit. As the firm’s website says: “There is no point in just cleaning the air, people need to breathe the cleaner air. The Airbubbl
has been designed by specialist airflow engineers who have used advanced computer modelling to ensure clean air is delivered directly to the driver and passengers.”
In one independent test in October, the device moved around London inside the ‘Smogmobile’, a mobile pollution detection laboratory made by Cambridgeshire firm ETS. Nitrogen dioxide levels reached a peak while sitting in traffic. But once the the device was turned on, NO2 concentrations fell by 67% in three minutes, and more than 95% after ten minutes.
The device is attachable to the back of car headrests. Its makers say driving for two hours per day in a polluted area would require changing the filter once a year. The appliance runs on batteries or plugs into the car’s cigarette lighter.
