A while ago we posted a story about the state of pollution in China. In particular, we focused on Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang province where 11 million people attempted to evacuate, as pollution levels stretched beyond 30 times the healthy limit. Just last week, the government shut down schools, major roads and businesses, as the city ground to a halt. The streets were empty as the thick smog dominated the horizon. But now, an innovation from dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde might be able to help out.

Roosegarde released his latest invention just last week – and this thing is pure magic, something out of science-fiction. It’s an “electronic vacuum cleaner” that can actually remove smog form urban skies. Roosegard is working with the mayor of Beijing to have these installed in parks – in order to create little oases of clean air in the middle of the choking city.

This is where it gets technical. The concept uses buried coils of copper to create an electrostatic field, which then attracts smog particles, creating a void of clean air above it. How? Science.

You can purify the air so you can breathe again. It creates these holes of 50-60 metres of clean air so you can see the sun again. It’s a similar principle to if you have a statically charged balloon that attracts your hair. If you apply that to smog, to create fields of static electricity of ions, which literally attract or magnetise the smog so it drops down so you can clean it, like an electronic vacuum cleaner.

Said Roosegaarde in an interview during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven.

Roosegaarde’s company, Studio Roosegaarde has signed a memorandum of understanding with the mayor of Beijing to create a public park to showcase the technology – so this is very much a technology that can and will work- crazy.

[Source : Dezeen]