Dutchman invents bike that tackles air pollution - as you pedal

An artist and inventor from the Netherlands has devised a bike that he claims can help combat air pollution – by cleaning air in front of you as you pedal.

We’ve featured the work of Daan Roosegaarde on road.cc before – in 2014, we reported how his Roosegaarde Studio had partnered with Dutch multinational Heijmans Infrastructure to create a glow-in-the dark cycle path.

> Glow-in-the-dark road markings coming to UK after Netherlands tests?

Since then, he has developed a ‘smog eating tower’ that was built and sent to China – and which Treehugger.com describes as “a form of electrostatic precipitator where particles are ionized and then attracted to a charged screen.”

What’s more, it has been proven to actually work, according to the results of a study published by a professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology.

There’s also a by-product, too – the dirt particles it captures get made into unique jewellery.

The bicycle works on a similar principle, ‘breathing in’ polluted air which it then cleans and releases around the rider, although Treehugger isn’t convinced that it will be as effective as the smog eating tower.

Like Roosegaarde’s previous creation under his Smog Free Project, it has been developed with backing from the Chinese government, and he said: “Beijing used to be an iconic bicycle city.

“We want to bring back the bicycle as a cultural icon of China and as the next step towards smog free cities.”