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Tag:

air pollution

Can this Company Eliminate Air Pollution One Molecule at a Time?

Can this Company Eliminate Air Pollution One Molecule at a Time?

written by sponsoredcontent

Air quality is a big concern for large cities, but did you know that indoor air is often more polluted than outdoor air? Learn how just one small device can remove all those toxins in your environment and create better air for all.

molekuleMolekule has just launched a stylish and functional air purification system that offers a whole new indoor air experience. This well-designed machine is stylish, unobtrusive, portable, and 100% effective.

What Makes the Filters Different?

Unique technology in the Molekule ensures that it is extremely quiet compared to conventional air purifiers, and is infinitely more effective, able to completely replace the air in a 600 square foot room (large living room) twice an hour. Its 360° air intake pulls in pollutants from all sides, projecting clean air evenly across the entire room.

And while most air purifiers just capture indoor air pollutants in filters, the Molekule filter actually eliminates the pollutants entirely. This unique process is called PECO (photoelectrochemical Oxidation), and it works to break down pollutants extremely quickly using light on an electrochemical cell.

section6-largeThe PECO process uses similar technology as a photovoltaic cell to generate a chemical reaction that breaks down pollutants and eliminates them entirely from the home, and the resulting output is totally clean: trace amounts of water, carbon dioxide and elements (like Nitrogen), which are all naturally found in air.

Of course, Molekule also captures the big stuff that we can see: visible particles like dust, pet dander, and pollen are all picked up by the filter, as are volatile organic compounds (VOCs), given off by paints, carpet, and furniture, and it also eliminates mold and bacteria from the air while eliminating odors, too.

How to use a Molekule in your Home

You need one device per 600 square feet to ensure that the air is properly mixing in the room and that the device can efficiently purify the air in the room. But because it is so lightweight and portable, you can move it around depending on where you spend a lot of time! Move into the family room for game night, into the dining room for parties, and– perhaps the most important– Molekule recommends using it in your bedroom at night to improve your ‘sleep breathing zone,’ which they say is critical to helping you wake up refreshed and ready to go in the morning.

Learn more about why indoor air quality is so important in your bedroom.

The filters, which can be purchased for $99 per year, which will include all the filters you need and the device will let you know when it’s time to change them out. Sensors inside the monitor the life of the filters and will notify you on the device screen and via your mobile app when filters need to be replaced. They also offer an automated filter service– the app will tell the company when to ship your newest filter. They recommend that the nano-filter be replaced once a year and the pre-filter every three months.

molekule

But what’s the Story behind the Brand?

But what makes a product like this so compelling is the story behind the brand. In 1995, Dr. Yogi Goswami’s son was facing debilitating asthma symptoms. He turned his knowledge of solar energy and nanotechnology to develop a new approach to cleaning the air. The Molekule is the result of two decades of academic research, publications and patents. It was Dr. Goswami’s son Dilip who took the research further and turned it into a way to help millions of people breathe better. Their mission is to use scientific innovation to find a solution to global air pollution– starting in one home at a time but with the goal of eliminating indoor air pollution entirely. A noble goal indeed.

And the name? As the only air purifier that destroys pollutants at a molecular level, the name Molekule (molecule with a ‘k’) seemed to fit.

How to Get a Molekulemolekule

The company is running an awesome pre-sale– you can visit their site and pre-order a unit for $499, almost half off the regular price of $799, with just $15 for shipping.

The company is in full production mode currently, and they do expect to sell out very soon. The first Molekule units are set to ship in early 2017. They currently are shipping to the US only, although with proper outlet adapters, it will work elsewhere.

Stay tuned for product updates:

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Check out their video:

This post was sponsored by Molekule. Images from Molekule.



June 1, 2016 0 comment
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Public Views of Climate Science Hinge on Solutions, New Study Finds

Public Views of Climate Science Hinge on Solutions, New Study Finds

written by Yale Environment 360

People often evaluate scientific evidence not on the basis of its perceived merits, but on whether they agree with the policy implications of the research, according to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Using issues like climate change and air pollution as test cases, Duke University researchers sought to determine if what they call a “solution aversion” bias could be detected among self-identified Republican or Democratic survey participants.

In one example, participants were provided a scientific assertion that global average temperatures could rise as much as 3.2 degrees by the end of the century, after which they were presented with potential policy solutions. If that solution involved government regulation or increased taxes, just 22 percent of Republican participants expressed confidence in the initial scientific finding. But if the solution emphasized using market forces to curb temperatures, the percentage of Republicans accepting the initial temperature predictions rose to 55 percent. Self-identified Democrats displayed no difference in the same experiment, but liberal biases were clearly elicited on other issues, including crime and gun control, the researchers found.

The study complements previous analyses from Yale University and elsewhere, which suggest that education in the sciences is a poor predictor for global warming beliefs, and that rejection or acceptance of the problem is a product of much complicated sociological and psychological factors.



November 11, 2014 0 comment
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China Added Large Amount of Solar Power in First Half of 2014

China Added Large Amount of Solar Power in First Half of 2014

written by Yale Environment 360

In the first half of 2014, China added 3.3 gigawatts of solar power — as much as is installed in the entire continent of Australia — China’s National Energy Administration reports. The country now has 23 gigawatts of solar power installed, which is nearly twice that of the United States.

China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, has set a goal of 35 gigawatts of installed solar power by the end of next year. The nation’s push toward solar energy will include distributed solar, such as rooftop and ground-mounted installations near homes and municipal buildings, Chinese officials say, and the government could announce distributed solar incentive programs later this month, Bloomberg News reports.

Renewable energy, especially solar, has become a high priority for the Chinese government as major cities and industrial areas have experienced choking air pollution. Earlier this week, officials announced that Beijing would ban coal use by 2020.



August 11, 2014 0 comment
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Peak Pollution: China Aims For The Top So It Can Go Down

Peak Pollution: China Aims For The Top So It Can Go Down

written by CleanTechies.com Contributor

City-dwelling Chinese may still be choking on smog, but amid all the haze, China may turning a corner in its fight on pollution. Top Chinese officials have hinted at the fact that China is working hard to achieve “peak” greenhouse gas emissions, which may come sooner than observers expect.

“Peak pollution” refers to the point at which a developing country’s economy reaches a high enough level of production to ensure it will continue to grow even as it begins to work on reducing pollution rates.

Despite off-the-chart air pollution levels in some cities, China has long been the world’s leading producer and user of clean energy. It already has the largest wind market in the world and its installed capacity has nearly doubled every year since 2005.

Last year, China accounted for 45 percent of total new wind power installations worldwide. The government has ambitious plans to more than double its wind capacity by the end of the decade. By 2020, it plans to have installed a cumulative 200 gigawatts (GW) of wind, up from the current 92 GW.

While China has dominated the wind industry for several years now, it has been a latecomer to the solar party. Chinese solar companies have been the biggest in terms of manufacturing and exporting cheap solar panels around the world, but domestic demand within China for solar has been slow. That changed in 2013, when China leapt to the front of the pack, installing 12 GW of solar and becoming the world’s largest solar market for the first time. This year will likely be even better as the government has set a target of 14 GW of solar.

With the largest wind and solar markets in the world, China is clearly a clean energy powerhouse.

Even so, China’s clean energy sector has experienced some serious growing pains. As of 2012, only 61 of the 75 GW of installed wind were actually connected to the grid. The remaining turbines were left idle even as China was claiming to be setting a global example for clean energy. Moreover, China often has to curtail some wind generation on certain days because the electrical grid has not been upgraded in order to handle the intermittency of wind.

And for all of the hype surrounding China’s clean energy sector, especially its massive wind market, wind power still only represented 2 percent of China’s electricity sector in 2012. Meanwhile, coal-powered plants continue to belch out black smoke, accounting for three-quarters of the country’s electricity generation.

In fact, China is by far the largest producer and consumer of coal. It burns through about as much coal as the rest of the world combined. Over the past 10 years, China alone accounted for 83 percent of the increase in global coal demand, which has more than offset its achievements in wind and solar installation.

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But that may be about to change. In the wake of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, China has responded in kind. The vice president of China’s powerful National Development and Reform Commission, Xie Zhenhua, recently said that China would take additional steps to cut pollution.

China is “working very hard to address climate change,” Xie said. “We will try our utmost to peak as early as possible.”

The day after the Obama administration released its carbon rules, a senior Chinese official was quoted saying that China may consider a hard cap on carbon emissions in its next five-year plan, which is due in 2016.

If China does ratchet up efforts to clean up its economy, it could indeed reach “peak pollution” much quicker than anticipated. Some experts predict that China’s pollution won’t top out until the 2030s in a business-as-usual scenario.

This would be an extraordinary development if China articulates a plan to cap its carbon emissions in the near future. For years, global climate talks have been at a standstill because a bloc of developing countries led by China have been resistant to capping emissions, arguing that rich countries have had been polluting for far longer.

China has argued that it deserves more time – which would result in a continual increase in its annual greenhouse gas emissions. If China, influenced by U.S. action, decided to set a ceiling on its emissions rate, it could lead to a significant breakthrough in international negotiations.

Reaching peak pollution would necessarily mean closing coal plants. It would mean a massive increase in nuclear power. It would also mean using much more natural gas. It would require cleaner vehicles and more mass transit. And it would obviously mean a huge buildup of more solar and wind power.

There is still a long way to go, but the days of China’s smog-choked cities may be numbered.

Article by Nicholas Cunningham of Oilprice.com



June 11, 2014 0 comment
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Scale and Extent of Dam Boom in China Detailed in Mapping Project

Scale and Extent of Dam Boom in China Detailed in Mapping Project

written by Yale Environment 360

China is planning to build at least 84 major dams in its southwest region, as shown in a map from the Wilson Center, eventually boosting its hydropower capacity by more than 160 gigawatts. By next year China’s capacity will surpass Europe’s, and by 2020 it’s projected to be larger than that of the U.S. and Europe combined.

China-dams-wilson-center-800

 

An interactive map shows the scale and number of major dams proposed, under construction, existing, and canceled. The dam rush is part of an ongoing effort by China to increase non-fossil energy sources to 11.4 percent of the country’s total energy consumption — a goal that has gained urgency due to severe air pollution in many northern Chinese cities. However, the hydropower push is not without its own major environmental consequences, the Wilson Center notes.

More than 70 of the dams planned or being constructed are located in so-called “biodiversity hotspots,” areas with rich species diversity that are threatened by development. The cascades of planned dams will submerge important corridors that connect tropical rainforests to the Tibetan Plateau and allow wildlife to migrate to cooler climates as temperatures rise.



April 20, 2014 1 comment
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Newfound Atmospheric Hole Threatens Polar Ozone Layer

Newfound Atmospheric Hole Threatens Polar Ozone Layer

written by Yale Environment 360

Researchers have discovered a large opening in the Earth’s atmosphere that is enabling pollutants to rise into the stratosphere and destroy ozone. The hole, which is in a part of the lower atmosphere called the “OH shield,” is several thousand kilometers long and is centered over the tropical west Pacific Ocean.

It’s relatively close to Southeast Asia, a region with a booming population and rapidly increasing air pollution. The hole is a major concern because the OH shield usually scrubs air of chemical compounds emitted near the ground before they can reach the stratosphere, where those compounds can persist for long periods of time, reacting with and destroying ozone, say researchers at Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute who identified the hole.

The newly discovered phenomenon acts as a sort of elevator, researchers say, drawing chlorofluorocarbons, sulfur dioxide, and other contaminants straight up to the stratosphere and bypassing the OH shield scrub.



April 8, 2014 0 comment
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China Includes ESG in its Strategy for War on Pollution

China Includes ESG in its Strategy for War on Pollution

written by

In his recent state-of-the-nation speech, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang acknowledged the impact of environmental, social, and governance— ESG—issues on that country’s economic policies. He announced that the government will “declare war” on pollution. The environmental impact of China’s mainly coal-powered energy generation has been well documented, with levels of toxic air pollution many times higher than accepted safe standards that have negatively affect commerce and health.

What’s new is the growing social pressure from the Chinese public, and the implications it raises for the government’s governance over the Chinese economy. Last month, the smog that covers much of the country was declared its first “orange” alert, the second highest-level of new pollution standards. As the toxic haze persisted, China’s blogosphere began to ask why a top-level “red alert” had not been issued. Despite the government’s rigorous Internet censorship, the online questioning registered as widespread criticism that had to be answered.

The Prime Minister noted that smog was a growing problem that authorities needed to “fight” with more resources. As an example, he proposed that plans to close “backward” production facilities in the steel, cement, and glass-manufacturing industries be moved forward by one year. The combination of social media commentary and the questions about the government’s policies it raised have added the “S,” social, and the “G,” governance to China’s already admitted “E,” environmental, to complete its adoption of ESG as a guiding economic philosophy.

Article by John Howell.



March 21, 2014 0 comment
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China Approves Major Increase in Huge Coal Mining Projects

written by Yale Environment 360

In 2013, the Chinese government approved 15 large coal mining projects that will produce more than 100 million new tons of coal a year. The expansion will lead to a 2 to 3 percent growth in coal production over the next several years, even as the country announced moves to reduce the severe air pollution choking major cities such as

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January 9, 2014 0 comment
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Chinese State Media Criticized for Touting Silver Lining of Air Pollution

written by Yale Environment 360

For Chinese citizens worried about smog, which has been blanketing major cities and smashing air pollution records recently, China’s state media has some advice: Look on the bright side. State broadcaster CCTV and a Communist Party tabloid, Global Times, yesterday published editorials attempting to put a positive spin on China’s air

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December 12, 2013 0 comment
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China Doubles Renewable Energy Pace as Record Pollution Chokes Shanghai

written by Yale Environment 360

Over the past 10 months China has added renewable energy sources to its power grid at double the pace of 2012, according to its National Energy Administration (NEA). The renewable energy push, part of a massive effort to cut air pollution in China’s large cities, has added more than 36 gigawatts of clean energy capacity so far this year,

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December 9, 2013 0 comment
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The Future of Clean & Electric Boating Looks Bright

written by Walter Wang

The Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf and Ford C-Max Energi are the top three electric vehicles on the roadways, but what about our waterways? Electric cars aren’t the only vehicles transforming sustainable and economical transportation. Electric boats are also traversing historic waterways and canals that have been polluted with oil and noise. Electric boats may

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December 2, 2013 0 comment
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EPA Incentivizes Retrofitting and Replacing Diesel Construction Engines

written by Walter Wang

Construction vehicles and equipment are major sources of diesel pollution and unfortunately can pose as serious public health threats since diesel exhaust contains more than 40 toxic air contaminants, carcinogens, and fine particular matter.

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November 22, 2013 0 comment
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Beijing to Limit New Cars by 40 Percent in Anti-Pollution Drive

written by Yale Environment 360

In an effort to reduce severe air pollution in the Chinese capital, Beijing will limit by 40 percent the number of new cars sold annually for the next four years, cutting license plate allocations from 240,000 to 150,000 each year.

The cap, which should also help ease the capital’s

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November 6, 2013 0 comment
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Breakthrough in CO2 Conversion to Useful Forms of Carbon

written by Walter Wang

CO2 is an important air pollution emission contributing to climate change. Researchers around the globe are looking at ways to remove CO2 from flue gasses and to store it (sequestering) or to in someway use it.

By tuning gold nanoparticles to just the right size, researchers from Brown University have developed a

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October 28, 2013 0 comment
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