WEBVTT - Could We Turn Air Pollution Into Ink?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey rain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vocal Bomb Here. Have you ever looked at the

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<v Speaker 1>dirty haze and lung clogging smog caused by air pollution

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<v Speaker 1>and thought, hey, this could be art. Sounds ridiculous, right,

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<v Speaker 1>But the ridiculous is becoming a reality in a process

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<v Speaker 1>that can turn air pollution into ink. A company called

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<v Speaker 1>Gravicki Labs is transforming the microscopic particulate matter in machinery

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<v Speaker 1>exhaust resulting from burning fossil fuels what we might call

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<v Speaker 1>soot and is more officially called PM two point five

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<v Speaker 1>into black inc whether from cars and trucks or generators

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<v Speaker 1>and factories. What would have been inhaled by millions or

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<v Speaker 1>dirty buildings or contaminated water and soil can now be

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<v Speaker 1>used for drawing and printing. As the Gravicki Labs website states,

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<v Speaker 1>our vision is to arrest the urban PM air pollution

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<v Speaker 1>in a way that it doesn't reach our lungs or

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<v Speaker 1>waste streams. Their goal is quote to confine and mind

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<v Speaker 1>that captured pollution into high grade inks that everyone can

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<v Speaker 1>use to express themselves through art or writing. The ink

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<v Speaker 1>they make from this process is called air Ink. Graviki

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<v Speaker 1>Labs grew out of the work that company co founder

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<v Speaker 1>Annie rouch Armad did as a graduate student with m

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<v Speaker 1>I T Media Labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During his studies,

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<v Speaker 1>on a trip home to India in twelve, he took

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<v Speaker 1>a photo of a white wall covered with a triangle

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<v Speaker 1>of soot caused by diesel generator exhaust. He saw potential

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<v Speaker 1>in the pollution. Carbon black, a byproduct of the incomplete

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<v Speaker 1>burning of petroleum products, is normally used to produce ink,

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<v Speaker 1>as well as as a component in rubber paints and plastics.

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<v Speaker 1>Rather than burn new fossil fuels for ink production, Terma

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<v Speaker 1>and his colleagues wanted to create ink from vehicle and

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<v Speaker 1>machinery exhaust already being produced, thereby also reducing particular matter

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<v Speaker 1>in the air from these sources. Experiment with candle soot

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<v Speaker 1>and an improvised printer cartridge led to a lab set

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<v Speaker 1>up in India in twenty where pollution and restrictions are

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<v Speaker 1>not as strict as in the US, allowing for easier

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<v Speaker 1>particular capture and more effective testing. The trial and error

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<v Speaker 1>of attaching strange equipment two cars in Bengalore for capturing

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<v Speaker 1>PM two point five produced a small device they named

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<v Speaker 1>call Inc, which can be retrofitted to exhaust pipes. This

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<v Speaker 1>electro mechanical device can capture of PM two point five

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<v Speaker 1>in the exhaust without any adverse effect on engine performance.

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<v Speaker 1>Once the particular matter is filtered, ground to a standard

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<v Speaker 1>size and liquefied in a Gravicky Labs proprietary process, the

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<v Speaker 1>result is a densely colored, free flowing black ink. One

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<v Speaker 1>thirty million liter pen is the equivalent of forty five

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<v Speaker 1>minutes of diesel production. A number of Indian companies have

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<v Speaker 1>contacted Gravicky Labs to dispose a particular matter that otherwise

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<v Speaker 1>would end up in a river or landfill. Kickstarter campaign

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<v Speaker 1>raised more than forty thousand Singapore dollars equal to a

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<v Speaker 1>bit over twenty nine thousand in US bunny for more

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<v Speaker 1>than six and eighty contributors. In addition, Singapore based tied

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<v Speaker 1>Or Beer partnered with Graviki Labs for an art campaign

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<v Speaker 1>making air Inc available to artists and cities such as

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<v Speaker 1>Hong Kong, Berlin and London to create murals and other

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<v Speaker 1>public artworks. And yes, air Inc Is available for purchase.

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<v Speaker 1>Though they're not a sponsor of this show. We just

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<v Speaker 1>think they're cool. Since Gravicky Labs has been able to

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<v Speaker 1>clean one point six trillion leaders that's trillion cubic inches

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<v Speaker 1>of air, producing more than one thousand, two hundred liters

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<v Speaker 1>of air inc. But with the Colink device capable of

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<v Speaker 1>customization for larger applications including factory smokestacks and capturing particulates

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<v Speaker 1>directly from the air, those numbers should only increase. Charma

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<v Speaker 1>and his colleagues could then scale up to tackle industrial

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<v Speaker 1>applications including inkjet printers, textiles, and publishing. As inventors and entrepreneurs,

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<v Speaker 1>the Graviki Labs team would be able to breathe a

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<v Speaker 1>little easier, and so would we. Today's episode was written

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<v Speaker 1>by Jim Marion and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>is a production of Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For

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<v Speaker 1>more in this lots of other topics, visit our home

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