Keeping the air indoors clean can be a tough job unless you’ve installed air purifiers that can cost a small bundle. If you’re one of those who believes that growing plants indoors helps in keeping the air free of pollutants, you might want to rethink your stand. While it’s true that plants do help in air purification, they do so only to a small degree. The main part of a plant that’s associated with cleaning the air significantly (called the rhizosphere) is located near the roots. And since roots are buried deep within pots, they can’t really reach their purification potential. But there just may be a way to get the rhizosphere to act properly if researchers at CASE are to be believed. The group claims to have developed such a method through a system called Active Modular Phytoremediation or AMP.
The AMP system consists of a perforated and irrigated sheet of plastic that’s been vacuum-molded. This sheet lets users raise walls of hydroponic plants in open air. The plants are placed into the perforations where their roots are exposed to airborne toxins. The shape of the walls guides the pollutants to the roots where the rhizospheres can do their job.
So what exactly acts as an air filter? Microorganisms living on the roots absorb VOCs and other pollutants, breaking them down into non-toxic material. Once the air is filtered, it goes back through the AMP system and circulates around a room. If you’re wondering just how effective the system is, CASE claims that it can reduce office pollutants by to 80 percent. If that’s true, then fresh air needn’t be pumped into buildings which in turn will reduce power consumption by ventilation systems by a whopping 60 percent.
For the moment, the AMP system is still in the testing stage. If it takes off, we may soon see offices sporting walls of hydroponic plants instead of dreary old air purifiers.
Via: Fastcodesign
