Peru Uses New “Super Tree” Technology to Fight Air Pollution
A device invented by Peruvians known as the “Super Tree” has recently made its debut in Lima, a city plagued with extreme air pollution. The Super Tree acts like 1200 real trees, purifying the air for approximately 20,000 people a day, at the cost of only about $6.
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One of the Super Tree’s developers, Jorge Gutierrez, noted in an interview that “the idea is to take them to most of the countries that have this problem and to be able to work on a world scale to improve people’s health.” The cost of a Super Tree is currently around $100,000 dollars, or about $5 per person’s daily need of clean air.
So how does it work? The Super Tree basically sucks in outside air, then under thermodynamic pressure combines the toxic elements in the air with water, and then pumps out clean air. Byproducts of the process include some mud and non-potable water that can be easily pumped into sewer systems. The Super Tree (”super arbol” in spanish) cleans about 200,000 cubic meters of air per day, eliminating polluting gases like carbon dioxide, as well as germs and bacteria.
The Super Tree is a terrific application of an appropriate technology, as the World Health Organization claims that Lima has an average level of air pollution 9 times higher than what is considered to be acceptable for healthy living. Lima has even recently required traffic officers to wear gas masks. Used cars are thought to be responsible for 86% of the air pollution in Lima and the average car is about 18 years old.
Visiting the Super Tree
The Super Tree can be found at the intersection of Aviacion Avenue and Primavera Avenue, where the districts of Surquillo, San Borja, and Surco meet. I first noticed the Super Tree when driving by last week because it located near to where I live, and I realized that it was a new structure.
If you take a look at the photograph I took above, you will see that the Super Tree comes complete with an educational booth. I stepped into the booth to see if the air seemed cleaner, and to me it did (but don’t expect to be amazed). The information available in the booth is very basic, and could be improved. Tierra Nuestra’s website has much more detailed information for the curious.
The mayor of Surquillo has pledged to install at least 20 Super Trees, and Tierra Nuestra hopes to install 400 trees throughout Lima in the next four years– so there will be an opportunity to improve the educational and promotional efforts at the trees themselves. That said, the Super Tree is a fantastic innovation that will undoubtedly improve quality of life for the citizens of Lima and other cities plagued by air pollution.
Photo Credit: © Levi T. Novey
you always hear about these cool new ideas which might save the world but they haven’t had much of an impact. maybe they’re not as great as everyone says they are.
i really doubt this actually works, probably just something the government setup to get the environment votes down there. I mean come on…that is ridiculous.
Eco is the most important body of the world.
Within echo and trees ,we can’t live.
most of you people are the reason nature sorts itself out the way it does… Idiots.
I could hire 5 people, plant 1200 trees for $83.00 each, and in 15 years cut them down and pay for a super tree.
I see two real problems
1) you get poluted water that has to be cleaned
2) carbon dioxide is not converted to a carbon complex and oxygen (as in plants), thus it is no real alternative for a tree, at least not on large scale.
Wow this is great! The high cost is a bit prohibitive though. I wonder if the mainstream US and EU economies would consider embracing this on a large scale? I wish they will!
it’s amazing how we can criticize even these kind of awesome inventions…ok, we need to stop our behavior, in the meantime let’s kill all the people of the big cities with pollution…it consumes electricity, let’s not use it to clean the air we breathe…we can easily be part of the problem just not using properly the energy because we just can afford it and because it’s easy, but when someone puts effort, money and talent in these kind of advances, hey, we are the most ecologist guys on earth…
The next time you walk into a city full of smoke, remember the supertree consumes a lot of energy, walk the other side the machine is planted explain this to your lungs, and be happy.
P.D. great post Levi
Realist. your comment about how this will polute the water even more. That is incorrect this is where smog curently goes as it is absorbed by the moisture in the air from water evaporation and then falls as rain. The diference here is that instead of being spread out over thousands of miles it is isolated to the water table of the area allready causing polution.
So though this is a great step to go green it has allready become outdated. A similar chemical process was just developed in japan. that then turns the waste chemicals in to a stable clean burning fuel.
I have looked at the company’s site and, although there is a reference to water treatment, there was not a way to access how that is being addressed. Perhaps you can find some answers on this point for a future posting.