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Smog-Eating Tower Comes to Life, and May Be On It's Way to Beijing
A couple of years ago, we and quite a few others poked fun at a Dutch artist's pie-in-the-sky project to build a smog-eating tower that would then compress the collected particulate matter into jewelry.
Well, he's gone and done it, and if all goes well, one of these seven-meter-tall babies will be appearing in Beijing soon.
Earlier this month, Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde fired up a model of the Smog Free Tower in a park in Rotterdam (at Vierhavensstraat 52, for those of you with friends in Holland).
Roosegaarde -- who owns design studios in both his native Holland and in Shanghai -- designed the tower in conjunction with Bob Ursem, a nanoparticles expert at the Delft University of Technology. Roosegaarde was inspired to work on the tower after a particularly polluted stopover in Beijing. He recently told Wired magazine that his structure can purify 30,000 cubic meters of air per hour.
Ursem told The Guardian that the tower has cleaned the area around itself by 60 percent, as measured by the share of nanoparticles removed. In indoor environments the machine can take out 70 percent of particulate matter.
But does it actually work, and if so how? Also, are there really plans to bring one of these towers to the smoggy Chinese capital that inspired its design? We've been promised it before -- in 2014 we were told that installation in Beijing was going to happen within a year -- so we decided to catch up with Roosegaarde to find out the latest.
Are there any concrete plans to bring the Smog Free Tower to Beijing at some point, and if so when might that happen?
Yes, Beijing is on the top of our wish list, and we hope to bring the Smog Free Project to Beijing as soon as possible.
You told Wired: "We’ve gotten a lot of requests from [Beijing] property developers who want to place [the tower] in a few filthy rich neighborhoods of course, and I tend to say no to these right now ... I think that it should be in a public space.” Tell us more about why that's important to you.
Air pollution is a matter that affects us all. I hope the Smog Free Project brings together governments, NGOs, the clean tech industry and ordinary citizens. Together we can make modern cities livable again.
If the tower were to come to Beijing, where would be one of the best public spaces to place it so that ordinary Beijingers could find refuge from the pollution?
A park dowtown would be great, but we will work with government to decide which location would be best.
How exactly did Beijing's pollution inspire the Smog Free Tower?
I was sitting in my hotel room in Beijing, and on a Saturday I was able to see the building across the road. On Wednesday I couldn’t even see the opposite side of the street. Children growing up in Beijing have never experienced a blue sky, it's like snow in Africa to them. They have to play indoors until they’re eight because it’s too dangerous for them to play outside. That was a real eye-opener for me.
You've said this tower uses very little energy, only the same amount needed to power a teakettle. How is that possible?
The Smog Free Tower uses very little energy because of its unique and patented ion-technology. By charging the Smog Free Tower with a small positive current, an electrode will send positive ions into the air. These ions will attach themselves to fine dust particles. A negatively charged surface -- the counter electrode -- will then draw the positive ions in, together with the fine dust particles. The fine dust that would normally harm us, is collected together with the ions and stored inside of the tower. This technology manages to capture ultra-fine smog particles which regular filter systems fail to do and doesn't create ozone in the process."
And just to add a little bling to the project, Roosegaarde is compressing the captured particles to make into cufflinks and rings. Want to order one? Contact Studio Roosegaarde here.
Images: Studio Roosegaarde
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Re: Smog-Eating Tower Comes to Life, and May Be On It's Way...
Re: Smog-Eating Tower Comes to Life, and May Be On It's Way...
This also makes me realize that sometimes the government might be the biggest scapegoat in China, but in fact it's all about the people, every single one of us. When people criticize the government and stuff, many of us need to reflect for a moment if we are justifiable to do so ...Everything is so fake. Nobody cares. It's all about making money. End of story.
It's the government's job to realize that human nature, left unregulated, will not necessarily benefit society as a whole, and make and enforce laws that prevent disaster from happening.
Of course in terms of environmental regulations, the government has clearly chosen the path of allowing everyone to make money at the expense of the environment.
The good news is that often times you have to hit rock bottom and get desperate before a change can occur.
China has an opportunity to be a world leader in renewable energy, and I really hope they move quicker in that direction.
Re: Smog-Eating Tower Comes to Life, and May Be On It's Way...
(This doesn't relate to the company and designer mentioned in the article. )
I have a very good friend who works for one of the largest and proably most well-known green construction companies in Beijing. She told me yesterday that many of their current projects are completely fake.
Typically when a building is under design, the design company needs to hire a green buliding company for consultation on energy saving plans and related designs. The green building company will help to generate Plan A, B and C, and then will use computer simulation to evaluate all three plans. For example, if plan A, B and C cost the same while plan A saves 10% of energy, B saves 15%, C, 20%, then they will decide to use plan C.
But that's not how it works here in Beijing. Here, when the green building company is contacted by the design company, the design of the building is usually completely done, including the "energy saving plan". So the green building firm in fact doens't participate in any of the sustainability discussion during the design and construction of the building. The design company usually gets in touch with the green buliding firm and simply tells them that they are doing A, which saves 10% energy, and they want the green building company to fabricate plans B, C, and D, all of which save less then 10%.
This makes it appear as if the design company has incorporated the most optimal energy saving design in its work. Truth is: nope, it's all fake. The sole purpose of the fabricated plans B, C and D is to make A look good. In this way, the green building firms are simply hired guns to make the design company's Powerpoint look better so that they can get the offer from the developer.
I asked my friend maybe the incorporated energy saving plans may turn out doing great. My friend said, "that's usually not the case because most design companies have zero expertise and they don't give it a shit. It's not impossible that some of the designs out to be okay, but no matter what, the way it works blatantly violates the protocal of how it should work."
I was like "what the fuck?" Why do these firms even exist? What they are doing is a waste of time, a waste of money, a waste of resources and a waste of human labor.
These "green building consultation" firms simply claim to "help the green initiative". What they do in real life---helping the design companies to fabricate fake reports---is exactly the opposite of what they claim to be doing.
Reducing emmission by saving energy from buildings in the long run is no less important than controlling automobile emmission. A buliding's life span is least 50, 60 years and if a building's energy supply can be reduced by 10% per year, it will be an enormous number when you add up for 50 years. Energy doens't come from nowhere, they are burned from coal.
This makes me very cynical toward the situation. I used to believe that the enviornmental problem is by and large a development and policy issue, but it is in fact much worse than that. It's no less of a corporate issue, and a human character issue. People do whatever it takes to make money. That's it.
This also makes me realize that sometimes the government might be the biggest scapegoat in China, but in fact it's all about the people, every single one of us. When people criticize the government and stuff, many of us need to reflect for a moment if we are justifiable to do so. I assure you that the managers of the design company and the green building firm post on their social network about their opinions of the enviornmental issue all the time. But they really need to shut the fuck up because it's not only bad policies, bad supervision, the evil coal mine developers in Shanxi and the "development problem".
It's them who live right here in the city. Dressing up like some worthy men in Sanlitun.
Everything is so fake. Nobody cares. It's all about making money. End of story.
Re: Smog-Eating Tower Comes to Life, and May Be On It's Way...
Children growing up in Beijing have never experienced a blue sky, it's like snow in Africa to them. They have to play indoors until they’re eight because it’s too dangerous for them to play outside.What absolute dross! Had this guy even been to Beijing? This summer has been mostly blue skies. As for children who can't play outside. I would agree on some days they definitely shouldn't and cringe at sports classes going on in 200+ days. However, they definitely do go outside and play regardless.
Agreed. The first part of his statement, about not being able to see across the street, ok, we've experienced that. But the rest is absolute nonsense. A real turn-off.
Yeah, it's nonsense because you need to keep them indoors after they turn 8 as well 
Or at least enroll them in a RMB 200k a year school with a million-dollar anti-pollution dome.
Yeah the guy is exaggerating. But as a parent of an 8-year-old, he's not far off.
I can tell you that my kid notices a huge difference between Beijing and where we spend our summers in the US. Unless its raining or overcast, the skies are always blue there, to the point that you don't notice it. Here, we base a lot of our outdoor activities on the pollution level, and its something we need to pay attention to every day. Our daughters' school's field trip to the wildlife park was cancelled earlier this week due to pollution -- that's just normal here.
Re: Smog-Eating Tower Comes to Life, and May Be On It's Way...
Children growing up in Beijing have never experienced a blue sky, it's like snow in Africa to them. They have to play indoors until they’re eight because it’s too dangerous for them to play outside.What absolute dross! Had this guy even been to Beijing? This summer has been mostly blue skies. As for children who can't play outside. I would agree on some days they definitely shouldn't and cringe at sports classes going on in 200+ days. However, they definitely do go outside and play regardless.
Agreed. The first part of his statement, about not being able to see across the street, ok, we've experienced that. But the rest is absolute nonsense. A real turn-off.
Re: Smog-Eating Tower Comes to Life, and May Be On It's Way...
This whole tower looks like a scam. If their goal was to achieve publicity for their design studio, they've done a great job.
Apparently it works... Aside from that, the studio themselves are the first to admit that this isnt the solution to pollution woes, but it is meant to spark thought, debate and innovation.
The Guardian story has these quotes:
"[Rotterdam's mayor] acknowledges the innovation’s limitations: 'It may not be the answer to all our problems, but this shouldn’t be the main objective,' he says. 'The objective must lie in a different perspective, a refreshing approach to a global problem.'
Esben Alslund-Lanthén, a researcher at the Danish sustainability thinktank Sustainia, says the filter is not a large-scale environmental solution but can be useful as an awareness-building: 'It shows how polluted our cities are, especially from energy and transportation'"