Delhi's Living Towers Breathe Life Into City Air

New Delhi has activated India's first microalgae-based PureAir Tower, a significant stride in urban air remediation. Located along the Aerocity highway, this installation functions as a biological air purification system, utilizing photosynthetic microalgae to capture atmospheric pollutants like CO₂, PM, and NOx.

This next-generation infrastructure deploys natural bioremediation, converting captured pollutants into oxygen and algal biomass in real-time. The project, executed by CP Arora Private Ltd in collaboration with Carbelim Pvt Ltd, an IIT Madras-incubated start-up, represents a scalable, indigenous innovation designed for integration into road infrastructure. Each tower provides the air-cleaning impact equivalent to more than 15 mature trees.

Further installations are planned, including three additional towers and a kilometer of Carbelim BioDivider™ panels, designed to transform medians into active green corridors. These panels offer purification comparable to two trees each, collectively impacting a kilometer stretch as much as 500 trees without additional land use. The system operates in a closed-loop cycle, converting captured pollutants into usable algal biomass such as bio-fertilizer or biochar.

Carbelim is also focusing on industrial carbon capture, utilizing patented microalgae strains for hard-to-abate sectors. Their proprietary breakthrough involves a trained consortium of microalgae engineered for enhanced environmental tolerance and CO₂ capture efficiency, ensuring uninterrupted operations for up to 18 months. This initiative is particularly timely for Delhi, which frequently experiences severe air quality, marking a paradigm shift towards infrastructure that actively reverses pollution.