Amida Cleantech, a New-Delhi based clean air technology start-up, which developed a unique large-scale outdoor, semi-outdoor and indoor filterless air purification system, is close to getting a US patent for the innovation.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in early February 'allowed' the innovation for granting a patent. Amida Technology had filed for global patents (parent Indian Patent application (201821013355 A, PCT application PCT/IB2019/051711 and International Publication Number: WO2019/193433). Patent experts say the patent for the innovation - an air purification system, with Praful Ramachandra Naik (CTO of Amida) as an inventor, will get validity once the USPTO 'grants' the patent. According to Siddharth Dixit, managing director and CEO of Amida Cleantech, scientists with Amida developed the system in-house and the technology was fully validated in India by 2019 before filing for patents.

Amida claims to be one among 5-6 companies globally, with a technology to address large public place air pollution. While many countries with lower air quality indexes are managing pollution by measures like SMOG towers, spray guns, etc. Amida Biotech developed a proprietary technology, which can address large public space air pollution such as city-wide installations, infrastructure points such as railway/metro stations, airports, bus shelters/ terminals, and major public interest points, says Dr. Praful Naik, Chief Technology Officer at Amida Cleantech. Dr Naik is a scientist with more than 40 global patents under his name and has worked with global companies across health care, pharma technology solutions.

Post Covid, awareness among the public and authorities to ensure clean air for all is opening up a huge market for open-air pollution control devices and solutions. The Indian market for air cleaning solutions, including room purifiers, may grow from the current ₹700 crore to over a billion-dollar market (about ₹8,200 crore) within the next 3-5 years. Amid the Covid crisis, the global market for Air Pollution Control Systems was estimated at $74 billion in the year 2020 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.8% to a size of $98.2 billion by 2026, estimates of a market study published in 2021 by Global Industry Analysts (GIA).

Models developed by Monash University in Australia reveal only 0.18% of global land area has PM 2.5 levels (atmospheric particulate matter (PM) that have a diameter of fewer than 2.5 micrometres) that fall under the safety levels recommended by the World Health Organisation, according to the study published in the Lancet Planetary Health. A 2019 World Bank Report states $8.1 trillion as the global cost of health damages associated with exposure to air pollution, equal to 6% of global GDP. People in low and middle-income countries are the most affected. "A study by Dalberg Advisors says Air Pollution costs Indian businesses about $95 billion every fiscal due to reduced productivity, work absences and premature deaths. This is equal to 3% of India’s GDP, which is equal to 50% of all tax collected annually, or 150% of India’s healthcare budget," says Siddharth Dixit.

He says Amida's ACE+ nano air science technology, a six-stage air purification process works on breaking down the air molecules that result in complete attraction, capture and complete elimination of pollutants. This is a tech advantage over conventional HEPA and PLASMA technologies to treat large volumes of polluted ambient air consistently, enabling it to treat outdoor, semi-outdoor (infrastructure points) polluted air.

It is a consumable-free, no-replacement filter technology which can be integrated with HVAC networks, air conditioning and ducting network as they have negligible air pressure drop in the absence of filters. As a result, they don’t alter the throughput capacity of these machines. Dixit says the technology helps to capture and sterilize viruses and bacteria, eliminate particulate matter PM 2.5, PM 1 and PM 0.1, carbon monoxide, capture and eliminate nano black carbon, chemicals and microbials and transform carcinogenic gases like Nox and Sox into harmless gases and capture and eliminate Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s).

The technology was corroborated by tests conducted by an independent NABL-accredited laboratory and has proved to accomplish over 98% improvement in the Quality of Air on a continuous basis.

Amida's technology was installed at French railways company Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer francais (SNCF) facilities after screening and validating a wide variety of air-purification technologies from across the globe. It was validated after running in actual working conditions at the Avenue Foch railway station in Paris. It's also been tested at Museu Nacional dArt de Catalunya- a UNESCO Heritage Museum in Spain.

Amida's technology was conceptualised, developed and patented in India and now has been deployed at the Niti Aayog office in Delhi as well as at its open-door common areas. It is being used as a retrofit device with all diesel generators above 125 Kva, for which various State Governments have already passed regulations and are now finalising guidelines for implementation. “This in itself is a massive scale opportunity if you look at the number of backup diesel genset devices in the Indian market,” says Siddharth Dixit.