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
“Supertree” is a very badly chosen name. Do I sniff marketing here?
Because, … trees work for free, and in addition to filtering the air, they produce oxygen. In surplus, they deliver wood, and create a nice environment to work and live in.
The so called “supertree” needs electricity as input (continuously!), and gives poluted water as output. Hereby it does not even reach the level of filtration reaches by trees! And… it does this at a very high cost! (although the cost mentioned in this article is very incomplete) Who pays? The people with cars, or ‘the community’?
Pfft, I hope this idea is only VERY temporary, giving the people more time to work out real solutions.
This is not Eco. This is just cleaning up mess.
Its a concept, I don’t think it’s even viable. Their basis for ’scrubbing’ the air are probably marketing biased details too. 1200 trees? What does that mean in the grand scale of things? …Not much. Trees (even 1200) have a large surface area, so the flow basis of that thing is questionable as well.
just patching up the problems, rather than tackling the causes…
and if the supertree does its job properly people will even forget that there was a pollution problem, and will create more pollution, needing more super-trees to clean the air, allowing us to drive more cars and produce more pollution…. and so on…
without ever looking at the causes of the problems and changing the way we live so we dont need energy guzzling and water poisoning super-trees.
we need to stop polluting, not a system to clean pollution, so we can pollute more.
we need a post carbon, post industrial, sustainable and local economy/society
we need to live surrounded by real trees, not ugly machines.
maude’syraunt: you can see a tree in the top right corner of the picture
Yeah this is a pretty cool idea, but the waste enters the sewers, into the water supply, so they’re decreasing air pollution , and increasing water pollution. this hardly seems like a good idea to me, as water is just as important as air.
$100,000 for a giant bong? You’re kidding, right?
Plant more trees and quit driving so much. (Easier said than done, I know.)
At first glance I was overwhelmed and thought what a great idea that is. And then I realized it would be way better to avoid pollution in the first place.
Great idea. These “trees” should grow in 1 month. They have no roots to cause problems for buildings and roads. Maybe design can be improved. Cleaner air immediately. Better health, less work-days lost to casual sickness. Improve moods and thinking of people.
Let’s go to a poor country, where people barely have schools or hospitals — and spend $100,000 on a “tree” after we’ve bulldozed their natural trees to make way for exportable cheap agricultural crops?! Good plan.
Funny how the article also doesn’t mention most 3rd world nations don’t bother with emissions controls on cars. Do we need a $100,000 “tree” on every corner, or would it be so hard to put little things like catalytic converters on their cars?
Oh, and I love the idea of taking extremely toxic compounds and pumping them into the (3rd world not-so-advanced) sewer system. Without a removal mechanism in place at sewage treatment plants, these compounds will leave with the treated sewage, to taint water supplies and make fish toxic to eat.
Sorry, but this is the worst eco idea I’ve heard of.
I agree with everyone else. This super tree does not solve all the problems, so we shouldn’t bother with it at all.