Source: European Investment Bank
“As scientists, we have a strong commitment to creating practical solutions that can contribute to a better future for all people,” says Aleksandar Rodić, head of the Centre for Robotics at the institute and one of the purifier’s designers. “This is why we’ve developed an ad-hoc technical solution aimed at mitigating pollution in large urban areas.”
Pollution in Belgrade is exacerbated by a nearby coal-fired power plant, which provides close to half the country’s electricity. The city also has many industrial plants and dense road traffic. Air pollution is a leading cause of mortality, diseases and respiratory illnesses in the country. According to estimates, around 7,000 residents in Serbia are diagnosed with lung cancer annually, mainly because of smoking and the air pollution.
Addressing the causes of a city’s air pollution requires substantial long-term investments in cleaner power generation and road traffic. The new air purifier, however, offers immediate improvements at a much lower cost, Rodić says. “Such solutions are also scalable, allowing for replication throughout the region and beyond,” he says.
The purifier was supported by the EU for Green Agenda in Serbia initiative. It received technical and financial assistance from the European Union, with additional funding from Sweden, Switzerland and Serbia. The initiative is implemented by United Nations Development Programme and the Serbian Ministry of Environmental Protection, in cooperation with Sweden and the European Investment Bank. The EIB is providing technical assistance to banks and businesses for many green innovations like this one.
Under the Green Agenda initiative, the air purifier project received €44 000 from the European Union to build a pilot filtration system at the Ušće Shopping Center in Belgrade. The system includes two air purifiers and the wind and kinetic energy devices that generate green electricity to run the filtration systems.