The Company claims to have cleaned up 1.6 trillion litres of air since its inception.
The battle for sustainability is going to be won and lost in India. With its compulsion to provide the basic facilities to its massive population, without incurring the huge cost in terms of resources and otherwise, the country is a battleground for battles that could literally save the earth. In our continuing series, we bring to you two more start-ups trying to do their bit.
Graviky Labs
Graviky Labs is a carbon capturing start-up based out of Bangalore, India. Started in 2013, the company claims to have cleaned up 1.6 trillion litres of air since its inception.
Started by Anirudh Sharma who began experimenting in the field of carbon capturing while he was at MIT, soon realised his “experiment” could only help his country if he returned and hence in 2013 he along with his three friends started the company known as Graviky Labs. Inspired by Buckminister Fuller an American architect, author, designer and inventor, Graviky Labs believe in his saying, “Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we’ve been ignorant of their value.”
The air contains tiny black particles of carbon, present due to the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. These particles are extremely small approximately 2.5 micrometers in diameter. Graviky Labs use Kaalink their post tailpipe retrofit technology to capture these particles. The device consists of filters, sensors and a capture unit. The filtration technologies of Kaalink are pipelined together to achieve the right granularity. Initially attached to the end of a car’s exhaust pipe, Kaalink captures 95% of the particular matter without inducing any sort of back-pressure on the engines. Kaalink can currently be designed to fit diesel generators, small chimney-stacks and bio-gas burning chimneys.
The company’s second product is Air-Ink, the worlds first ink made completely out air pollutants. The pollution captured by Kaalink undergoes various processes to remove heavy metals and carcinogens; leaving behind a carbon based pigment. The final stage takes the carbon-based pigment through a variety of chemical processes in order to make different types of inks.
Air-Ink binds the particulate matter or carcinogens into inks/pigments thereby taking away their ability to float. Graviky Labs essentially eliminate soot from the air and use zero fossil fuels to create its inks. As per the company it takes 45 minutes of vehicle pollution to produce enough ink for one pen.
Graviky Labs raised over 1.2 million dollars as revenue in its first year itself and has gained recognition from stars like Shah Rukh Khan, who pledged to use Air-Ink as a part of his brand promotions. The company was also one of the star presenters and audience favorite at the launch event for Start up India in 2016, with the prime minister in attendance too.
Graviky Labs regularly collaborates with international artists to spread the message of environmental conservation. In 2016 Graviky Labs launched Air-Ink in partnership with Tiger Beer, Heineken Global in Hong Kong. Where over seven Hong Kong based artists used approximately 150 litres of Air-Ink to cover the walls of the city, in a campaign against air pollution. The entire campaign was captured on video and got over 2.5 million views in just 10 days.
Graviky Labs has a presence in Bangalore, Delhi, London, New York, Berlin, Chicago, Sydney, Singapore and Amsterdam. It is currently working on conducting phase pilots of Kaalink in Delhi, aiming particularly at diesel generator set-ups in commercial establishments. It hopes to install 1000 capture units in every constituency.
