Dutch design filtering city smog gets picked up by Chinese bike sharing app

Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde has invented an outdoor air purifying system that will take in street pollution and turn it into breathable air for cyclists.

The China connection

At the Dalian World Economic Forum in Dalian, Roosegaarde’s innovative invention that claims to be able to suck in pollutants from the atmosphere and create a smog-free city cycle experience has sparked interest amongst China’s largest bike sharing app, Ofo, and Tesign, a platform that promotes design.

The design

A bike can be fitted with a filter screen that sits on the handlebars and is powered by the pedalling cyclist. It absorbs surrounding dirt in the air and throws out clean air for the cyclist to breathe in.

He also showed off his anti-smog tower design, which is a seven-metre high building that uses ozone-free technology to capture smog and purify it. It claims to be able to clean 30.000 cubic metres of air in one hour. This project is already in the making, with production being taken care of by Film Method Works in China, a country with chronic pollution problems. 

Roosegaarde’s team are currently working on prototypes that Ofo can test on their bicycles. The company has more than 6 million bikes for share and is expecting to expand to 20 million by the end of 2017.

"We are not talking about a three or five-year plan, but a 12-18 months plan. In China you got to move fast," Roosegaarde said.