China is Trying to Solve Its Air Pollution By Turning Smog Into Diamonds
Pollution is one of the biggest problems for today’s world and is a direct byproduct of the rapid progress we have made in the last century. We have managed to pollute all the resources that are vital for our very survival, air, water and land.
This is going on throughout the world, but one country where things are beginning to go out of hand, is China. It is no doubt that China has seen some of the fastest progress made in the last 30 years. But with that progress came pollution too, which is reaching dangerous levels. So much so that it is becoming impossible to live in certain areas.
Air pollution is so severe in some cities of China that at one point in 2014, visibility was down to just a few hundred yards. In fact, 10 cities were put on red alert in December, 2015 due to severe air pollution.
But there might be a solution for China’s air pollution problems, and an innovative one at that. A Dutch artist, Daan Roosegaarde has come up with a solution that proposes to turn the smog in these polluted cities into diamonds. Yes, you heard that right.
The project is named the Smog Free Project which had a successful pilot run in Rotterdam, Netherlands and is finally making its way to China. The method proposed to achieve the said turning, consists of two parts.
First, there will be several 7 meter tall towers all over the cities which will suck up the polluted air in the surrounding area and would release clean air into it.
Second, all the carbon collected from the sucking of smog will be pressurised for 30 minutes to convert it into diamonds which would then be sold as jewellery to fund the expansion of the project.
Whether or not the project will actually be successful on such a large scale cannot be predicted right now, but it is a necessary step in the right direction. But some others have expressed their concerns that instead of treating the effects of pollution, we should be treating the cause. Nonetheless, projects like these will at least help is some damage control.
You can check out this video by World Economic Forum, which describes it further.
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Unfortunately, the tower is not working as they had planned. It only cleans in the immediate area and not a small village as they had hoped. They are now planning to just make it a memorial of sorts. Maybe newer versions will be enhanced.
yeah, probably in the future versions they will make it better. Technology is bound to improve.
I didn't think it would work. I think the energy requirements for producing artificial diamonds are quite high so it kind of negates the point unless they can find some clean energy source to do it with. I think we should look on it as more of a contemporary art installation:)
I read that it uses as much energy as a water boiler. Also, somewhere it was mentioned that it uses wind energy.
The idea of contemporary art installation is brilliant. The design is very nice, isn't it?
That's what I thought and some artists use art as a starting point for environmental ideas to get the conversation going. A bit like with sci-fi authors in the past.
Exactly. I was kind of surprised (I don't know why) to learn that an artist is leading an environmental cause. Maybe I am 'living in a well'
I've seen a lot of artists doing tech related things lately. They often come up with ideas that are so creative that nobody else has thought of them:)
very cool!
Yeah! It's quite innovative, isn't it?
Brilliant. What technology can do .. WOW
Yes, technology surprises us every now and then :)
Cool. That is a black diamond. That why they can make it that big. Try to make colorless diamond with less impurity.
yeah, it would be very hard to do that.
They can do it but it becomes really expensive - I think it just becomes cheaper to use natural diamonds. Incidentally I don't think natural diamonds are as rare as we are lead to believe I think the prices are more reflective of tightly controlled and manipulated market.
You have diamonds on the brain! Now we just gotta figure out to create some... :)
haha! yeah, better do it quick! :D
technologies to create diamond has already exist . But creating diamond from polution that that was cool
Of course it does, but do you have that technology at your finger tips? That was more of what my comment was in reference to ;)
I dont think there is enough diamond demand in the world to fix chinas pollution problem
I think is a very nice idea to implement a solution like that in order to build a better place to live.
What an amazing world we live in.
That is a great idea. One thing to remember is China is where we were in the late 80's or early 90's in their manufacturing phase. I mean that the way technology has changed is one thing but they actually have carbon and soot like we used to, which was one of the things that washed out of the sky when it rained. We now have all kinds of polutions thanks to modern marvels like catalytic converters and fuel attitives and and everything wonderful that pollutes the water and ground. But one thing about it thought, the earth is resilient and goes back to what it was before man's pollution. Another thing to remember, mother nature does a little polluting herself with fires and volcano activities. You wonder how to fix the problem with so many people riding in cars and on motorcycles at all times of the day and night and all sorts of commercial enterprises going that it never takes a break and lets mother nature catch up with the constant pollution. This is just a thought of mine that i wanted to throw out there.
Loved your thoughts on this. Thanks for sharing!
You are absolutely right in that mother nature is resilient but we need to give her time to recover. We are a non stop species that never lets the Earth rest.