Innovation

The Pure Skies System was developed by Mr. Srikanth Sola along with two other inventors in Phoenix, AZ, USA. The Pure Skies System is basically an air purifier system that provides clean air over a large area. The air purifier system developed by Devic Earth is different from traditional air purifiers.

The air purifier uses pulsed radio waves in the Wi-Fi spectrum which is normally the radio frequency ranges of 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 5.9 GHz, and 60 GHz bands. The radio waves in the Wi-Fi spectrum are sent on specific bursts and pollutant particles in the air having +ve or -ve charges face the pulsed radio waves. A weak electromagnetic field is created and because of the dielectric effect, the oppositely charged particles start to move together and agglomerate and move out of the atmosphere. This phenomenon normally happens in the atmosphere, but the technology used in the Pure Skies System accelerates this process of clearing the air of pollutants. The use of radio waves makes the product completely safe.

The differentiating factor in the Pure Skies System is that it can cover large areas compared to a normal air purifier. The air purifier can be used to cover large heavy industries, office complexes and multiple units of Pure Skies System can be linked together which can cover large portions of a city as well. Devic Earth has received funding from the Ministry of Environment and Forest of India and also received support from the Central Pollution Board of India. The company has been publishing its work in journals and also working with reputed research institutions to further improve their product. The product has been certified by regulatory bodies like the Central Pollution Control Board of India and other International Safety Agencies.

Inspiration

Mr. Srikanth Sola, an internationally reputed cardiologist graduated from the renowned Stanford University and Duke University. Mr. Sola was working as a cardiologist in the Cleveland Clinic when he decided to come back to India. After coming back to India, Mr. Sola was working as a cardiologist at Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences in Bangalore. Mr. Sola’s first patient in India was a shoe cobbler who was working on the streets of Bangalore. He was admitted because he had a heart attack, but this person did not have any risk factors which can result in heart failure. The reason for this person suffering a heart attack was because of the polluted air that he was breathing while working on the streets. The person was treated back to good health. There were many people whom Mr. Sola had treated related to the same issue and unfortunately there was one patient who was not able to recover and passed away. This made Mr. Sola determined to develop a technology that can provide clean air to people which led to the development of Pure Skies System.

Overall impact

In today’s world, the air that we breath is getting polluted day by day. The best way to curb air pollution is to reduce pollution at the source. The way forward is to make the cities more sustainable and Pure Skies System is effective in improving the quality of the air that we breathe. According to the WHO, 9 out of 10 people breathe air containing a high level of pollutants. Air pollution is the cause for premature deaths causing 8.8 million deaths per year causing great economic burden with about 8.5% of the GDP being lost.

Devic Earth has conducted an experiment in an Architecture firm in Bengaluru, where they are 40 people working in the office space. The number of sick leaves in the office was increasing due to air pollution-related illnesses. The number of sick leaves in the company were going up and because of this, the productivity of the company as a whole was getting affected which was causing a reduction in their profits. Using the Pure Skies System, they were able to find out that the air quality increased by 78% and the number of sick leaves decreased, which lead to an increase in productivity and the profits went up by 5%.

There is scope to improve this technology even further and if used properly, then this system has the potential to provide clean air to large areas. With the results showing for the impact that the air purifier has on providing clean air for its user, it can reduce the health hazards that air pollution can cause on human health, thereby improving the quality of life.

Business benefit

The company believes in sustainability and that following sustainable practices will lead to an increase in the bottom line. The company provides Pure Skies System to heavy industries, office spaces and homes in different models each suited based on the area of space and coverage. The sales model followed are of two types, which are the traditional sales model (annual maintenance and contract) and subscription model. The AMC model sells the units to the customers with a maintenance contract for a specific number of years as per the plan chosen by the customer. The subscription model is suited for companies that have budgetary constraints. The units are paid for as per the subscription plan and the customers can later shift to the AMC model when needed. The pricing of the models ranges from 1.75 lakhs up to 12.5 lakhs based on if it is to be installed at homes or heavy industries or at office spaces or outdoors (https://www.devic-earth.com/, 2019).

Devic Earth is a for-profit green technology company and its goal is to become the leading green technology company in the world in the next 5-10 years. Apart from developing their green technology further, as per company CEO Srikanth Sola, “We build great people who build great technology. Focus is not only on technology but also on people who work with the company.”

Social and environmental benefit

Even though the green technology created by Devic Earth is not a one-stop solution to air pollution, it is at the moment the best possible solution in lowering the pollutant levels and providing clean air. Devic Earth satisfies Goal 3 and Goal 11 of the 17 UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. While setting up Pure Skies System in homes, the pollutant levels fell down by 40-49% within two weeks (https://www.devic-earth.com/, 2019).

The Pure Skies System when installed has shown to improve the air quality by a minimum of 33%. The air purifier system can be used inside heavy industries where the pollutants in the air are on the higher range. The outdoor variant of the unit was used at Airtel Delhi Half Marathon last October and the cocoon of clean air created by two units around the 26 km race course enabled over 35,000 runners to participate in the event in cleaner air (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/entrepreneurship/air-purifier-for-an-entire-city-devic-earth-breathes-new-life-into-fight-against-pollution/articleshow/67432127.cms?from=mdr).

Interview

Srikanth Sola, Co - Founder, Director and CEO