Air filtering bus
Poor air quality is becoming an increasingly serious issue across the world.
That’s why we fitted a unique filter on the roof of a bus to extract particulate matter (PM10) from the air.
One ‘air-filtering bus’ has the capacity to clean the air on its route up to a height of ten metres. The filter was manufactured in collaboration with PALL Aerospace and fitted onto the roof of the bus. Each filter is made up of three fans and is designed to remove up to 99.5% of particulate matter from the air without impacting passengers’ travel experiences.
The scheme was first piloted in Southampton with our company, Bluestar (a subsidiary of Go South Coast). From our 100-day trial we collected 65g of particulate matter from the air in 100 days – roughly the weight of a tennis ball. Southampton was chosen as a location for the pilot following a report from the World Health Organisation that the city was at its limit for unsafe air pollution.
From this data, we calculated that six buses could remove 1.25kg of particulate matter from the atmosphere every year. We are now operating six air filtering buses in Southampton, covering an entire bus route.
We are ready to share the innovative technology with other local authorities, because poor air quality affects us all – and we must work collectively to reduce our impact on the environment.
We have chosen five of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals as our areas of focus. The air filtering bus shows our commitment to Goal 13 (Climate Action) and ensuring that public transport is helping pave the way for better air quality on our streets.