Igor Todorović of Balkan Green Energy News writes:

Following a number of trials and temporary deployments, this is the first known permanent setting. The CityTree has a bench, a green wall, tools to measure the performance and environmental data, solar panels and a battery to power the automatic irrigation system. The air filters have the capacity equivalent to as much as seven thousand people to breathe freely, the German company said.

The Waltham Forest borough in the northeast of the United Kingdom’s capital city has installed three devices in the open to purify the air of suspended particles including PM1, PM2.5 and PM10.

The smart air filters project was done in cooperation with green technology firms Evergen Systems Ltd. and Green City Solutions GmbH.

The system equipped with internet of things or IoT contains moss.

The local authorities chose two places with chronical pollution in Leytonstone: the tube station and the main street. Moss has a large surface, enabling strong absorption and evaporation for cooling.

The smart walls are some four meters high and three meters wide. Engineers and decision makers in the cities around the planet have been long analyzing how prototypes fit in what is usually a limited street space where they are required.

Several CityTree air filters were placed for a while in London’s Piccadilly Circus, in Newcastle, Berlin, Oslo, Paris, Drammen in Norway, Amsterdam, Brussels and Hong Kong. The tryouts revealed some weaknesses in the climate infrastructure solutions, mostly due to an exceptionally hot and lengthy summer two years ago, prompting a design overhaul.

Researchers from Green City were also looking into the possibility of mounting the purifying tower onto trucks for demonstrators or moving groups as well as for construction sites.

Read more: Smart air filters with moss lower pollution on London streets