AIR-INK is a proprietary brand of

ink Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. ...

and composites products made by condensing carbon-based gaseous effluents generated by

air pollution Air pollution is the presence of substances in the Atmosphere of Earth, air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be Gas, gases like Ground-level ozone, ozone or nitrogen oxides or small particles li ...

due to

incomplete combustion Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion ...

fossil fuels A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geologica ...

. Founded by Graviky Labs, a spin-off group of

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...

, AIR-INK produces its materials through a step-by-step process which primarily involves capturing of emissions, separation of

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...

from the emissions, and then mixing of this carbon with different types of oils and solutions to achieve advanced material properties. It uses a patented device and technique called 'KAALINK' to carry out the filtration of soot, which contains carbon and other polluting agents like

heavy metals upright=1.2, Crystals of lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals is a controversial and ambiguous term for metallic elements with relatively h ...

and

polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon A Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is any member of a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple fused aromatic rings. Most are produced by the incomplete combustion of organic matter— by engine exhaust fumes, tobacco, incine ...

. AIR-INK is marketed as a solution to air pollution and its negative effects on human life, by allowing the print industry to offset its carbon. Dubbed as "the first ink made out of recycled air pollution," its products were used in June 2016 in association with

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 February 1864, ...

to create

street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant gr ...

and

murals A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanish ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Sheung Wan Sheung Wan (Chinese: 上環) is an List of places in Hong Kong, area in Hong Kong, located in the north-west of Hong Kong Island, between Central, Hong Kong, Central and Sai Ying Pun. Administratively, it is part of the Central and Weste ...

district. 30–50 minutes of car pollution can supply enough carbon to fill one AIR-INK pen.

History

Anirudh Sharma, the founder of Graviky Labs, first conceived the idea of AIR-INK during an experiment at MIT, while designing a printer that could print with carbon

nanoparticle A nanoparticle or ultrafine particle is a particle of matter 1 to 100 nanometres (nm) in diameter. The term is sometimes used for larger particles, up to 500 nm, or fibers and tubes that are less than 100 nm in only two directions. At ...

s. Sharma and his team spent close to three years researching how to purify and repurpose carbon soot from auto and factory emissions, a major contributor to air pollution and global carbon footprint. In 2013, the Fluid Interfaces research group, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology demonstrated the process of converting carbon residue into ink for use in an inkjet cartridge. In 2016, AIR-INK products were given to graphic artists in

, which is known for its high air pollution, who were requested to paint murals. An artist who participated in this campaign said of the product, "genius, and deserves a chance."

Technology

Soot composed of 2.5-micrometer

black carbon Black carbon (BC) is the light-absorbing refractory form of Chemical_element, elemental carbon remaining after pyrolysis (e.g., charcoal) or produced by incomplete combustion (e.g., soot). Tihomir Novakov originated the term black carbon in ...

particles found in petrol or diesel

carbon emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...

is captured from the

tailpipe An exhaust system is used to guide reaction exhaust gases away from a controlled combustion inside an engine or stove. The entire system conveys burnt gases from the engine and includes one or more exhaust pipes. Depending on the overall syste ...

s of cars and diesel generators through a device called 'Kaalink.' A separate ensures that carbon particulate is recycled into safe inks without heavy metals/toxins A single Air Ink pen contains 30–50 minutes of air pollution. The emissions from 2,500 hours of driving one standard diesel vehicle produces about 150 litres of ink.

'Kaalink'

Kaalink is a cylindrical device that is retrofitted into a diesel generators' exhaust system or exhaust pipe to collect the emissions. It can collect up to 93% of the total exhaust, which is then processed to remove heavy metals and carcinogens. The end-product from this device is a purified carbon-based pigment. Kaalink has been tested on cars, trucks, motorcycles and fishing boats in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

and

. The company now has started to work on capturing pollution from static sources of emission such as diesel generators. Third party polluters also send in their PM2.5 pollution to Graviky's recycling warehouses. Some critics have proposed this device will act similar to a

diesel particulate filter A diesel particulate filter (DPF) is a device designed to remove diesel exhaust#Particulates, diesel particulate matter or soot from the exhaust gas of a diesel engine.Tom Nash (May 2003) "Diesels: The Smoke is clearing", ''Motor '' Vol.199 No. ...

, which has been shown to increase back pressure on the engine, thereby marginally affecting the efficiency of the engine, resulting in a loss of power, decreased mileage, and increased emissions.

References

External links

*{{URL, http://www.graviky.com/, Graviky Labs Companies based in Bengaluru Emissions reduction Indian brands Inks Kickstarter-funded products 2016 establishments in Karnataka

History

Technology

'Kaalink'

References

Further reading

External links