When Mr. Arpit Dhupar and his friends went out to drink sugarcane juice from a roadside stall, little did anyone know they’d have an idea that would later allow 16 lakh people to breathe pure air yearly. But observing the diesel generator that was extracting the juice made him think. And it gave birth to a disruptive company, Chakr Innovation.

Air pollution is a massive problem in India. It’s the second largest public health risk after malnutrition. In 2019, air pollution accounted for 17.8% of the deaths in the country. Chakr Innovation has innovated to solve this issue by bottling up pollution and turning it into a usable product, painting ink. They figured out a circular system true to their company name, which means circle in Hindi.

So what did Mr. Arpit do that created such an impact? He noticed that the wall on which the fuel outlet was pointed had blackened. He joked with his friends about painting the walls of Delhi with paint extracted from air pollutants. 

Over time, he thought more about the idea and decided to develop a product based on the concept. His innovation is the Chakr Shield, which can be retrofitted onto diesel generators.The material captured from vehicle exhaust is passed through an air cooler-exchanger tube and stored in a solvent. The soot produced is converted into ink in Chakr's processing unit, which can be used for printer cartridges and inks. It eliminates 70-90% of particulate matter emissions. 

Chakr’s innovation has had a massive impact in some of India’s most polluted cities, where people are getting used to buying ‘pure Himalayan oxygen’ canisters to breathe from. It has helped clean more than 1500 billion liters of air in 2016 alone, and has started to innovate in other sectors such as waste management.

Let us all work to build and support innovations like these that can help us build a more sustainable future for all.

References:

Shekhar, D. J. (2023, August 18). Chakr Innovation: Setting the wheels in motion to reduce emissions that contribute towards air pollution. Forbes India. https://www.forbesindia.com/article/innovation/chakr-innovation-setting-the-wheels-in-motion-to-reduce-emissions-that-contribute-towards-air-pollution/87597/1

CHAKR Innovation – Revolution through Pollution. (n.d.). https://chakr.in/

Bottling pollution. (2020, December 15). AIM2Flourish. https://aim2flourish.com/innovations/bottling-pollution

Mascarenhas, A., & Roy, E. (2022, May 19). Explained: India topped air pollution death toll in 2019, says report. The Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-india-topped-air-pollution-death-toll-2019-7922560/#:~:text=Air%20pollution%20was%20responsible%20for,in%20The%20Lancet%20Planetary%20Health.