2023-05-09 14:09:25
A group of Serbian scientists came up with an amazing solution to curb environmental pollution. They created liquid wood, which is easy to place in the concrete masses of big cities.
According to IHME “environmental pollution kills three times as many people every year as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined”.
Two very large coal-fired power plants make Belgrade one of the most polluted cities in Serbia. Overall, Serbia ranked 28th in the world for worst air quality in 2020. So it’s no surprise that the country’s citizens are suffering from intense side effects. In 2019, the Global Alliance for Health and Pollution published a global, regional and country analysis of pollution and health indicators. In the report, Serbia ranked first in Europe, with 175 deaths due to pollution per 100,000 inhabitants.
Francine Pickup, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) representative in Serbia explained that: “Cities are estimated to account for 75% of the world’s total CO2 emissions, the largest share of which comes from transport and the cooling and heating of buildings”.
Since the population density is very high, the creation of green areas and the planting of trees – which in urban areas represent natural air purification – are complex goals, but there is little open space for park planning.
A Serbian solution to a global problem
Dr. Ivan Spasojevic, PhD in biophysical sciences, one of the authors of the Multidisciplinary Research Institute of the University of Belgrade, has developed an innovative tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality: liquid wood. Also referred to as LIQUID 3, the novel creation is Serbia’s first urban photo-bioreactor, which represents a solution in the fight for clean air. It contains six hundred liters of water and works by sequestering carbon dioxide with the help of microalgae and producing pure oxygen through photosynthesis.
Microalgae replace two 10-year-old trees or 200 square meters of lawn. The operation of LIQUID 3 is practically an imitation of this. Both trees and grass carry out photosynthesis and fix carbon dioxide. However, the advantage of microalgae is that they are 10-50 times more effective than trees. The team behind LIQUID 3 stated that their goal is not to replace forests or tree planting plans, but to use this system to fill urban zones where there is no space to plant trees. In conditions with intense pollution such as Belgrade, many trees cannot survive, while algae do not have a problem with high levels of pollution.
Dr. Ivan Spasojević explained that “the institute used unicellular freshwater algae that exist in the lakes of Serbia and can grow in tap water as well as withstand high and low temperatures. The system does not require special maintenance – after one and a half months, it is enough to remove the biomass produced by the division of the algae, which can be used as an excellent fertilizer, pour new water and minerals into it, and the algae will continue to grow indefinitely. The aim of the project is to popularize and spread the use of microalgae in Serbia, as microalgae can be used in wastewater treatment, as compost for green areas, for the production of biomass and biofuels, and for air purification of exhaust gases from factories”.
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