What if the ugly, in this case air pollutants, could give birth to something beautiful?
One of our most common industrial outputs, soot, has a harmful effect on human and environmental health, but thanks to some resourceful thinking and innovation in pollution capture technology, combined with the development of a process for detoxifying and refining it, it can be 'recycled' into ink and paints.
An MIT Media Lab spinoff company is turning soot into an art supply, which at first glance seems to be working backward - after all, shouldn't we focus on reducing soot and other particulate emissions? However, like many issues, there is more than one way to skin an avocado, and perhaps by turning something harmful into something useful, it could be part of a potent message about the importance of addressing air pollution, by providing one of the tools for artistic expression and activism.
A device developed by Graviky, called Kaalink, can capture 95% of particulate matter from tailpipes and other air pollution sources, without inducing back-pressure (which can harm the operation of those sources), which is then refined and detoxified and turned into a high-quality black ink called Air Ink. According to Graviky, 45 minutes worth of vehicular emissions captured by the Kaalink device can produce 1 fluid ounce of Air Ink, and in essence, the device and its products could help to mitigate some of the world's most harmful emissions.
Read more here.
