Chakr Innovation is a cleantech startup based in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

specializing in

material science A material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geol ...

technology. The company was founded by graduates from

IIT Delhi Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT- Delhi) is a public institute of technology located in Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology created to be a Centre of Excellence for India's training, research and developme ...

and works in the fields of air and

environmental protection Environmental protection, or environment protection, refers to the taking of measures to protecting the natural environment, prevent pollution and maintain ecological balance. Action may be taken by individuals, advocacy groups and governments. ...

. Chakr Innovation is the first company in India to receive type approval certification for their retrofit emission control device (RECD) from labs approved by the

Central Pollution Control Board The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India is a statutory organization under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Mo.E.F.C.C.). It was established in 1974 under the Water (Prevention and Control of pollution) Act, 1 ...

(CPCB). They have over 15 patents filed, and their work has been recognized across the globe by reputed organizations like the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

, WWF,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

, and the like.

History

Chakr Innovation was founded in 2016 by Kushagra Srivastava, Arpit Dhupar and Bharti Singhla – graduates from

, to reduce pollution with the help of innovation and technology. The idea began with a group of friends having sugarcane juice at a shop with a wall turned black because of

soot Soot ( ) is a mass of impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons. Soot is considered a hazardous substance with carcinogenic properties. Most broadly, the term includes all the particulate matter produced b ...

particles coming out of the

diesel generator A diesel generator (DG) (also known as a diesel genset) is the combination of a diesel engine with an electric generator (often an alternator) to generate electrical energy. This is a specific case of an engine generator. A diesel compress ...

exhaust used for crushing sugarcane. Chakr Innovation launched Chakr Shield in 2017, one year after its incorporation. The device could reduce the

particulate Particulate matter (PM) or particulates are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. An ''aerosol'' is a mixture of particulates and air, as opposed to the particulate matter alone, though it is sometimes define ...

matter 2.5 (PM 2.5) emission from a diesel generator by up to 90%. In 2022, the company introduced a dual fuel kit that would allow a diesel generator to run on

fossil fuel 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 geolog ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

simultaneously in a 30 to 70 ratio.

Products

Chakr Shield is a patented Retrofit Emission Control Device (RECD) by Chakr Innovation. It was also the first in India to get a Type Approval Certification from CPCB-certified labs like

ICAT ICAT can refer to: * iCat, a robot toy * ICAT Design & Media College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India * International Center for Automotive Technology, Manesar, Haryana, India * International Coalition Against Terrorism * Isotope-coded affinity tag, ...

and

ARAI __NOTOC__ Arai may refer to: Places * Arain, Armenia * Arai, Niigata, Japan * Arai, Shizuoka, Japan People *Arai (surname) Companies * Arai Helmet (アライ), a Japanese motorcycle helmet manufacturer * ARAI (Automotive Research Association of ...

for its capability to reduce the pollution from diesel generators by up to 90%. The Chakr Dual Fuel Kit uses technology to allow a diesel generator set to operate on a mixture of gas and diesel as a fuel, with 70% natural gas and 30% fossil fuel. This can be a perfect conversion kit for industries with access to gas pipeline networks. With the launch of this product, Chakr Innovation reportedly became the only turnkey solution provider in India to control the emissions from diesel generators. In 2020, Chakr Innovation launched a

decontamination Decontamination (sometimes abbreviated as decon, dcon, or decontam) is the process of removing contaminants on an object or area, including chemicals, micro-organisms, and/or radioactive substances. This may be achieved by chemical reaction, dis ...

cabinet for

N95 masks An N95 respirator is a disposable filtering facepiece respirator or reusable elastomeric respirator filter that meets the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) N95 standard of air filtration, filtering at least 95% ...

with the help of

ozone Ozone () (or trioxygen) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , break ...

gas. Ozone is a strong oxidizing agent that destroys

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living Cell (biology), cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are ...

es and

bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...

by diffusing through their protein coats. Chakr DeCoV reportedly inactivated

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had the Novel coronavirus, provisional nam ...

and reduced the bacterial load by 99.9999%, allowing N95 masks to be reused up to 10 times.

Awards

* 2016: Winner of Urban Labs Innovation Challenge –

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

* 2017: Climate solver award –

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named th ...

(WWF) * 2017
Echoing Green
Fellowship * 2017: Champions of Change –

NITI Aayog The NITI Aayog (; abbreviation for National Institution for Transforming India) serves as the apex public policy think tank of the Government of the Republic of India, and the nodal agency tasked with catalyzing economic development, and foste ...

* 2017: Recipient of "Start-up in Oil & Gas Sector" award �
Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry
FIPI) * 2018: Winner of Young Champions of the Earth –

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the Declaration of the United Nati ...

(Asia Pacific) * 2018:

30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists published annually by ''Forbes'' magazine since 2011 consisting of 30 notable people under 30 years old in various industries. The American list consists of 600 people, with 30 selected in each of 20 sect ...

Social Entrepreneurs – Forbes * 2019: Winner of Maharashtra Startup Week Award �
Maharashtra State Innovation Society
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References

Pollution Pollution control technologies Technology companies established in 2016 Indian companies established in 2016 Manufacturing companies based in Delhi Manufacturing companies established in 2016 Diesel engine components