As European Union emission rules for Volatile Organic Compounds are tightened, shutdown looms for industries across Europe. But one Danish chemist may save the day with an air cleaning invention that removes organic compounds.
At the First International Education Forum on Environment and Energy Science held in Hawaii December 14 to 18, Matthew Johnson, from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, presented the years-in-the-making air cleaning invention he developed with investor INFUSER.
Johnson based his air cleaning method on the ability of the Earth’s atmosphere to clean itself. Triggered by sunlight, polluting gasses rise into the sky and form particles when they come across naturally occurring compounds like ozone. Rain washes the particles out of the atmosphere, and once the rain has made it to land, the atmosphere is clean again. Nature’s own air purifier.
Johnson studied the earth’s natural ability to clean itself and realized this method could be applied to clean indoor air. The five purifying aluminum boxes he designed and placed on the roof of the Aarhus business creates a better indoor climate and removes smells. This is huge for industries that may produce pollutants that anger nearby residents. Johnson’s process is called an atmospheric photochemical accelerator.
