One of the country’s largest transport operators has unveiled the UK’s first air filtering bus.
The Go-Ahead Group said the Euro 6 diesel Bluestar bus makes the air around it cleaner as it travels.
It is fitted with a filter that removes ultrafine particles from the air as the bus moves. Go-Ahead said the air behind the bus is consequently ‘cleaner than that in front of it’.
The firm demonstrated a prototype in Southampton on Thursday (27 September). It chose Southampton because the city has reached an air pollution limit set by the World Health Organisation.
Chief executive David Brown said: ‘We want this pilot to show that buses should be looked at as not just the solution to congestion in cities, but also as a solution to the air quality problem.
‘As the bus removes the ultrafine particles from the air as it travels along the route, it is helping solve the air quality problems of the city. This bus will clean the air on its route 1.7 times a year to a height of 10 metres - imagine the change we could make to air quality if all buses had this technology.’
The filter, which is fitted onto the roof of the bus, is made in an engine barrier-type filter construction which is designed for particle removal efficiency of 99.5% without any impact on the passenger or travel experience.
It is manufactured by Pall Aerospace, the world’s largest aerospace and defence filtration company.
Its senior director of marketing, Steve Simpson, said: ‘We used our knowledge of aerospace filtration to design and build a product that will help clean the air of the cities in which we live by removing the particulates that are a major component of air pollution.’
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