Liquid trees might just be the solution to combat urban air pollution

WEB DESK: Something right out of science fiction might just help us combat growing air pollution across the globe. What’s the solution, you ask? Liquid trees!

Liquid trees offers a viable solution to combating growing air pollution in urban areas across the world.

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The Liquid 3 technology was developed by scientists as a clean energy project. It utilises a photobioreactor system designed to replicate the air-purifying functions of traditional trees.

The technology is especially beneficial and desperately needed in densely populated cities where planting natural vegetation is practically hard, such as Beijing, New Delhi, Lahore and so on.

The liquid tree system operates by harnessing solar energy to power a glass tank filled with microalgae. Air is drawn into the tank through a pressure pump.

This allows the microalgae to absorb carbon dioxide and releaqse oxygen as byproduct.

According to the creators, the process not only purifies the air but also filters out heavy metal containments.

The bioreactor is also reportedly engineered to withstand extreme weather conditions. This ensures that the microalgae can thrive even in extreme environments.

The project was first implemented in Serbia, where air quality has been a recent decline. The country’s capital, Belgrade, has been suffering from bad air quality due to emissions from two major coal power plants.

As per the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), Serbia has the highest pollution-related mortality in Europe.

This is where liquid trees come in. The microalgae are reportedly ten to 50 times more efficient at carbon dioxide absorption than traditional trees.

According to the creators, each liquid tree can replace the air-purifying capacity of two mature threes or over 200 square meters of space that the trees occupy.

Three liquid trees were installed in the Balkan country, with plans to expand in coming years.

Liquid 3 design includes features such as charging ports for mobile devices and solar-powered lightning.

The project’s founder, Dr Ivan Spasojevic, detailed how the ‘trees’ work. Single-celled freshwater algae  that thrives in local water sources were used as they are resistant to temperature fluctuations.

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 The algae also requires minimal maintenance, with biomass only needing to be removed every six weeks that can be repurposed as fertiliser.