WAYU TO HELP YOU BREATHE EASY AT 4 TRAFFIC JUNCTIONS IN CITY IN A MONTH

Commuters at four busy traffic junctions in Mumbai can soon breathe cleaner air.

In less than a month’s time, the state pollution board plans to install Wind Augmentation and Air Purifying Units (WAYU) — an outdoor air purifying system — at Sion, Ghatkopar, Bhandup and Kalanagar, Bandra East

The state pollution board and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) zeroed in on the four spots that see severe congestion during the peak hours.

How does WAYU work?

Developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (Iit)-bombay and NEERI last year, WAYU breaks down pollutants, such as the dangerous PM2.5 and PM10 that lodge themselves in our bodies, carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCS) into carbon dioxide using a filter.

There are plans to also install these compact devices, which work on solar power, at Saki Naka, near JJ Hospital, the BMC headquarters at CST and Sion hospital.

“We carried out a preliminary assessment of 25 busy traffic junctions in the city to identify the most polluted, and then shortlisted four locations. It has been installed at three places already and we are awaiting approvals to set it up at Kalanagar,” said Rakesh Kumar, director, NEERI.

“Once we get the permission for the Kalanagar instrument, it will just be a matter of days for us to launch all four instruments.”

Kumar said for the system to work, it has to function on a regular basis to get sustainable improvement in air quality. “The units installed work well during peak traffic hours and dilute the air in open areas. It creates a micro-wind kind of turbulence to disperse pollutants and they are cleared up by almost 60 - 70%,” said Kumar.

Kumar said every location can have up to three units depending on pollution levels. A 10-day pilot study in 2014 showed the device brought down pollution levels considerably.

For the study, one unit was set up near the main entrance of Iit-bombay, Powai. PM2.5 levels dropped from above 100 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3) to as low as 40 ug/m3. The safety limit is 60 ug/m3.

Similarly, PM10, which was more than 160ug/m3 as against the safe limit of 100ug/m3, dropped by half to 50ug/ m3. “The device has five ducts that suck in air, trap particulate matter and release clean air using the principle of dilution. However for CO and VOCS, the air is heated inside the instrument and thermal oxidisers break down the pollutants at high temperatures into simpler forms like carbon dioxide (CO2),” said Vinayak Padalkar, IIT-B alumnus and the brain behind the instrument.

According to Padalkar, a single instrument costs between Rs30,000 and Rs40,000 and the total project cost would approximately be Rs70 lakh, excluding cost of solar panels and specific designs