Clean Air Tech - domain research

Eran Goldman-Malka · August 29, 2017

כללי

I’m going to start a new position @ Airboxlab, I liked the team, philosophy, and way of work in the company, so I decided to join in.

I’m going to read a bit about cleantech and clean-air-tech. To learn about it in advance, and I’m doing it before starting to work there so that I won’t expose any inside data, business or technical. A good business plan never relies on secrets but anyway.

The importance of domain knowledge is that it’s the base of everything that happens on the technical side, which can do staff much better.

So, let’s begin.

What is cleantech?

By Wikipedia :

Clean technology refers to any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts

Clean-Air-Tech - refers to the technology that monitors air quality and air pollution and the technology that cleans it.

Sorry in advance for the history geeks. If it’s not accurate, post a reply, and I’ll fix the historical facts.

Water/ Air supply - status

In the past, water was everywhere, or at least villages and cities had to be next to clean drinking water. The best way to kill a settlement was to pollute the water source. Since the roman empire, cities started to grow, and water became a product.

Nowadays, 41.5K employees for the U.S. government work explicit on water Water supply [source], and it cost the American taxpayer 149,516,770.25 $ per month

I couldn’t find any U.S. government employee in charge of air quality or air cleaning. There is probably some, but not enough to make a department of it.

Air quality

There are tons of researches that the air that we breathe gets worst every year.

Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals{.mw-redirect}, particulate matter{.mw-redirect}, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms

For example, in Mexico City, as the world biggest city and one of the worst air quality, there are long time researches that found that in PM10¹ there is a drop-down from 175 μg/m³ to 50 μg/m³ but PM2.5 is the same for more than ten years around 25 μg/m³.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set a PM2.5 standard for outdoor air at 15 μg/m3. California has set an even stricter standard of 12 μg/m3.

Air cleaning -

Not to pollute-

That’s the “easiest” way. Stop the pollution from factories, cars, households, etc., and you won’t pollute anymore.

Filtering -

That’s more complicated. During the last 200 years, factories have been polluting like crazies, not just the regulated CO2 but also particulate matter and other gazes that create many problems.

Filtering solutions can be efficient only in a controlled closed environment, aka in-house and close circulate air-condition.

Companies

I searched AngelList for “Air Pollution” and got 64 companies that develop solutions for air pollution,

We can separate those companies to 3 parts,

  • Solutions for out door activities like biking - I won’t get in to this area
  • In house monitoring :
    • ChemiSense - a wearable bracelet or badge that accurately measures the concentration of air pollutants in a users hyperlocal environment.
    • Airveda - PM2.5, PM10 Air Quality Monitor
    • ARTVEOLI - convert Carbon Dioxide (CO2) into Oxygen (O2), improving indoor air quality in homes
    • AirBase Systems - low-cost, easy-to-use air quality sensor devices
    • Oizom - solar-powered air-pollution monitor
    • Clean Air Apps - Adobe for air quality engineers
  • In house filtering :
    • Biome - In door air cleaning by garden walls
    • HomeLab - Monitor using foobot and advise based on the foobot results
    • Smart Air Filters - HEPA filter strapped to a table fan (not me thats what they wrote about their own solution )
    • AIRQUALITY - air sanitizer
    • Breathe Easy - BreatheEasy is India’s first full service Indoor Air Quality solution provider
    • Blueair - Air Purifiers

Researches and links :

[¹] PM10 - particulate matter with a diameter less than or equal to 10 μm

[²] PM2.5 - particulate matter with a diameter less than or equal to 2.5 μm

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