An IIT-Delhi Startup Develops A Cost-Effective Device To Reduce Risk of Respiratory Disease.
On November 1, just days
before Delhi got blanketed with toxic smog, an IIT-Delhi startup called
Nanoclean Global started a campaign called Gift Pure Air on their Facebook page
Nasofilters. It went viral as pollution levels spiked in the capital. Within
three days, the startup received thousands of inquiries from schools, hospitals
and companies from Delhi and across the country about its Nasofilter.
The
device, priced Rs 10, is a filter that you can cover your nostrils with. It is
not very conspicuous as the edges that stick to the bottom of the nose are
rather transparent. One filter can be used for around eight hours. The startup
team - a mix of civil and mechanical engineering graduates and textile
engineering professors - is now aiming for a pan-India launch of the product on
December 2, National Pollution Control Day.
Nasofilter has its
origins in grim yet inspiring circumstances. Nanoclean founder Prateek Sharma
grew up watching his mother suffer from asthma. He would procure the best masks
available for her to keep the pollutants out but most of the masks were
uncomfortable to wear. In 2015, when he was in the final year of civil
engineering at IIT-Delhi, he thought of building a prototype for filtering
pollutants - more importantly, the objective was to ensure his mother had
access to a device that was effective and easy to use.
Sharma built a team
with Tushar Vyas, Jatin Kewlani, Sanjeev Jain, all IIT-Delhi graduates, and
faculty members Ashwini Agrawal and Manjeet Jassal of the textiles department.
The first prototype
of Nasofilter was developed in 2016. They formed Nanoclean Global to
commercialise the device. "We made millions of pores in a tiny area,
reduced the diameter of the fibre by 100 times increased the pore density
medium. Instead of depth filtration, the team used surface filtration,"
explains Sharma.
The team used
nanotechnology to build the filters that can stick on the user's nasal orifice
while restricting the entry of particulate matter, including PM2.5 particles
and pollen allergens.
There is a lot
of research on nanotechnology but not many applications have been scaled up
using it. Our device has used this technology for solving a grim problem of the
global community. It is a use-and-throw, biodegradable product and gives
negligible breathing resistance," says Agrawal.
Nasofilter contains a
highly porous substrate that does surface filtration and autocleans itself as
one exhales. "This is technically very advanced," says Sharma. The
device recently won the Startups National Award 2017 the Technology Development
Board for creating promising new technology protect against air minimise the
risk of respiratory diseases.
Nanoclean has also
been recognised among the top 50 tech startups of the world by South Korea from
over 118 countries and was selected among the top 100 startups in the world by
Hong Kong - it is the only Indian startup to have achieved this feat.
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