This air purifier combats pollution by strapping onto your shoe

A visual handout showing how wearable air purifier Airtomo works
A visual handout showing how wearable air purifier Airtomo works Copyright Airtomo
By Doloresz Katanich
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It was invented by a student after he was fed up of the air quality on the London Underground. But how does it work?

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Postgraduate student Kevin Chiam has designed Airtomo, a wearable device that cleans the air from the ground up.

The invention was selected as one of the entries to the Global Grad Show 2020.

While commuting to class every day, Kevin realised that air pollution on the London Underground is the highest in the city. It got him thinking, could he find a natural solution to the problem?

"I realised that actually, nature uses rain to clean the air. As simple as that, " Kevin told Euronews Living. The device uses microdroplets of water, which "bind themselves to these microparticles that we have in the air," he explains. These particles then stay on the ground even after the water has evaporated, meaning we can breath in cleaner air.

His project is a prototype only at this stage, but Kevin has already designed a whole variety of the devices, including an industrial version. This would have the capacity to clean entire tube stations and could even be used in cities like Singapore, Kevin's home.

Kevin hopes the Global Grad Show will give him an opportunity to find investors and start commercial production.

The virtual exhibition features 100 projects by the next generation of graduate inventors who provide solutions to social and environmental challenges. One of this year's categories included 'Cleaning a Waste Filled Planet'.

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