Air Pollution Solutions: What is Kaalink?

The air we breathe is becoming more and more contaminated, with a range of serious consequences. The solution? While, like most things, there’s not just one simple solution, there are a number of things we can do to help keep our air clean. From reducing traffic on the roads to cutting down on our meat production, we can all do our bit to help protect the earth.

Some people, however, go the extra mile and produce innovative solutions to the air pollution problem. This 6-part series explores just some of those solutions. So far, we’ve looked at the Smog Free Project and CityTrees which aim to reduce air pollution by extracting harmful pollutants from the air.

In this post, we’re going to find out more about Kaalink, the unique product that captures pollution and converts it into printer ink.

Cleaner air

MIT graduate, Anirudh Sharma, has come up with an innovative solution to harvest the black smoke from chimneys and cars, and repurpose it as printer ink. Sharma discovered that ‘the pigmentation of that blackened smoke is actually unburned carbon released from incomplete combustion’, or soot.

So, if you capture the carbon from the air and process it chemically, you can produce a high-quality material that is vital in printing and ink industries.

Once the carcinogens and impurities have been removed from the black smoke, you’re left with a black, powdery substance. This ‘black gold’, as Sharma calls it, can be mixed with a bit of alcohol and oil and turned into a more affordable alternative to traditional ink.

Under development

Kaalink is currently in an advanced prototype stage and is awaiting further development before being brought to market. The product can be designed to fit diesel generators and other fossil fuel chimneys, capturing the harmful emissions and putting them to beneficial use. Kaalink can also be customised for use in ambient air, being adapted for all uses in outdoor pollution capture.

The repurposed carbon can then be used by newspapers, print magazines, t-shirt printing and many other organisations. This can help to remove harmful particulates from the air and offers a more cost-effective printing solution for companies.

Combatting air pollution

Kaalink is an innovative way of removing damaging particulates from the air and putting it to beneficial use. In our next post, we’ll focus on pollution-fighting roof tiles. Alternatively, take a look at the article ‘Cambi B2 “Packaged Unit” Thermal Hydrolysis Plant, Including Steam Explosion Disintegration’.