Every year, more than four to five million people die due to exposure to outdoor air pollution around the world. This petri dish that you are looking at contains approximately 20 minutes' worth of pollution captured off a pyrolysis plant. This is PM 2.5. These particles -- you can see it right now, but when they're out there in the air, you won't see them. These are so tiny that our lungs -- our bodies cannot filter them, and they end up in our bodies -- give us asthma and lung cancer if not treated in the right time.
Svake godine, između četiri i pet miliona ljudi umre usled izloženosti zagađenom vazduhu u celom svetu. Ova Petrijeva šolja koju trenutno vidite sadrži dvedesetominutno zagađenje iz vazduha iz postrojenja za pirolizu. Ovo je PM 2,5. Ove čestice sada možete da vidite, ali kada su u vazduhu, nevidljive su. Toliko su sitne da naša pluća ne mogu da ih filtriraju, i one završavaju u našim telima, pa tako dobijamo astmu ili rak pluća ukoliko se ne lečimo na vreme.
On a trip back to India, when I was a student in 2012, I took this picture. This picture stuck in my head. On one side, you see this exhaust of a diesel generator, the same generator which is a sign of human progress, which is a sign of rapid industrialization and what we have become as a society in the last 100 years, generating energy. But on the other side, you see this very interesting triangular, black-colored swatch, that is produced by the same residual particulate waste created by the emissions of the generator.
Na putovanju u Indiji 2012. godine, kada sam još bio student, uslikao sam ovo. Ovu sliku nikada nisam zaboravio. Sa jedne strane vidite izduvni gas dizel-motora, istоg motora koji je obeležio ljudski napredak, koji je znak ubrzane industrijalizacije i onoga što smo postali kao društvo u poslednjih 100 godina, proizvođači energije. Ali sa druge strane, vidite ovaj zanimljivi trouglasti crni uzorak, nastao od istih otpadnih čestica, koje su stvorile emisije motora.
Now, this picture gave me an idea and got me thinking about rethinking both pollution and inks, because it was making that black-colored mark. Now, the reality is that most of the black ink that we use conventionally is traditionally produced by conventionally burning fossil fuels in factories. There are factories around the world that are burning fossil fuels to produce carbon black, to make black inks that we use on an everyday basis. But given that millions of liters of fossil fuels are already being burned out there by our cars, our engines and our exhaust out there, what if you could capture that pollution and use it to recycle and make those inks?
Ova slika me je inspirisala i naterala da ponovo razmislim o zagađenju i mastilu, jer je stvarala te crne fleke. Ali, u stvarnosti, većina mastila koje koristimo se obično proizvodi konvencionalnim sagorevanjem fosilnih goriva u fabrikama. Po celom svetu postoje fabrike koje sagorevaju fosilna goriva radi stvaranja čađi od koje se pravi crno mastilo za svakodnevnu upotrebu. Ali imajući u vidu da se milioni litara fosilnih goriva već sagorevaju iz naših automobila, motora i auspuha, šta ako bismo mogli da uhvatimo tu zagađenost i da je recikliramo kako bismo napravili mastilo?
I decided to give this experiment a shot. I went back to my lab back in Boston and conducted a small experiment. In Boston, I couldn't find much pollution to play with, so I resorted to using a candle. This was an experiment. I burnt a candle, built this contraption that would suck in that candle soot, mixed it with some vegetable oil and vodka, because to a DIY hacker, these were really easily available.
Probao sam da ispitam ovu teoriju. Otišao sam u svoju kancelariju u Bostonu i sproveo mali eksperiment. U Bostonu nisam našao zagađenje da se igram, pa sam stoga koristio sveću. U ovome se sastojao eksperiment. Izgoreo sam sveću, stvorio ovu čudnu mašinu koja je usisavala čađ iz sveće, izmešao ga sa biljnim uljem i vodkom, jer su za hakera „uradi sam“ ove stvari vrlo lako dostupne.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
And after mixing them, you could churn out a very rudimentary form of ink that would go into a cartridge, and now you could print with it. This was my "Hello, World!" of experimenting with printing with pollution. This is the same pollution that I showed you in the petri dish, which is the result of any fossil fuel that is being burned out there.
Nakon što sam ih pomešao, dobio sam osnovni oblik mastila koji sam stavio u ketridž i koristio za štampanje. Ovo je bio moj prvi eksperiment štampanja zagađenjem. Ovo je isto zagađenje koje sam vam pokazao u Petrijevoj šolji koje nastaje kao rezultat bilo kog sagorenog fosilnog goriva.
In 2015, I decided to take this experimentation forward and set up a lab in India to work on the capture and recycling of air pollution. In the good times, the lab used to look something like this. But experimentations were not always controlled, and disasters happened. And while experimentation would happen, the lab would end up looking something like this. Well, we knew where we wanted to go, but we were not sure how exactly to reach there. The passersby who used to go by that lab through that building used to, at times, think, "These guys are making bombs in there," because there was too much fire, wires and smoke in the same vicinity.
Odlučio sam da 2015. godine nastavim sa ovim eksperimentom i osnovao sam laboratoriju u Indiji za rad na hvatanju i recikliranju vazdušnog zagađenja. U dobrim vremenima, laboratorija je izgledala ovako. Ali eksperimenti su nekada izmicali kontroli i desile bi se katastrofe. Za vreme trajanja eksperimenata, laboratorija bi na kraju izgledala ovako. Pa, znali smo kuda želimo da idemo, ali nismo bili sigurni kako da tamo stignemo. Prolaznici koji bi slučajno prolazili pored naše laboratorije s vremena na vreme bi pomislili: „Ovi ljudi ovde prave bombe,“ zbog toga što je bilo previše vatre, žice i dima u istom prostoru.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
We decided, let's move to a garage and take experiments forward. We took a garage, and during the early stages, we were driving around Bangalore with contraptions like these. This is an early-stage prototype. Imagine the looks people gave us, "What are these cars driving around doing?" This is an early-stage prototype of our system that would capture pollution that is being released from a conventional diesel-based car. This is an early stage of the technology. We advanced the technology and created this into this version that would capture pollution from static sources of pollution, like a diesel generator. If you see, all the fumes disappear as soon as you turn this machine on. Without affecting the performance of the engine, we are able to capture 95 percent worth of pollution released from the diesel generator. This is the particulate matter that we are talking about that we capture, in this case, within three to four hours of operation of a generator.
Odlučili smo da eksperimente preselimo u garažu. Obezbedili smo garažu, i u početku smo se vozili po Bangaloru sa ovim čudnim napravama. Ovo je prototip iz početne faze. Zamislite poglede tih ljudi: „Šta rade ovi ljudi vozeći ova kola?“ Ovo je prototip našeg početnog sistema koji hvata zagađenje koje dolazi iz konvencionalnih dizel-automobila. Ovo je početna faza naše tehnologije. Napredovali smo i stvorili ovu verziju koja hvata zagađenje iz statičkih izvora kao što je dizel-motor. Ako vidite, sav dim nestaje čim se mašina uključi. Bez ikakvog uticaja na rad motora, možemo da uhvatimo 95% zagađenja iz dizel-motora. Ovo je čestična materija o kojoj govorimo i koju hvatamo, u ovom slučaju, za tri do četiri časa rada generatora.
And while our experiments and our research was advancing, a very big company, a very big brand, approached us and said, "We want to take this idea further with you guys, and take this further in a very big celebrated form." They said, "Let's do a global art campaign with the inks that you are making off this pollution." I'll show you what the ink looks like. So, this pen is made by recycling 40 to 50 minutes of that car pollution that we are talking about, the same pollution that is in the petri dish. And it's a very sharp black that you can write with. So I'm going to write ... PM 2.5, that's incorrect. So this is a very sharp black that is generated by the same pollution.
I kako su naši eksperimenti i istraživanje napredovali, veoma velika kompanija, velika marka, nam se obratila, rekavši: „Želimo da dalje razvijamo ovu ideju sa vama, i dovedemo je do vrhunca.“ Rekli su: „Hajde da napravimo globalnu umetničku kampanju sa mastilom koje pravite od ovog zagađenja.“ Pokazaću vam kako izgleda mastilo. Ovu olovku smo napravili reciklažom tih zagađivača iz automobila tokom 40 do 50 minuta, istog zagađenja kao iz Petrijeve šolje. To je veoma oštra crna boja kojom možete pisati. Stoga ću napisati... PM 2,5, netačno. Ovo je vrlo oštra crna boja stvorena iz istog zagađenja.
After much work on the lab-level research, we got an offer from a big corporation to do a very big trial of this idea. And it happened to be a brand, and we didn't think twice. We said, "Let's go ahead." Inventing in the lab is one thing and taking ideas and deploying them in the real world is completely another. During early stages, we had to resort to using our own houses and own kitchens as our ink-making factories, and our own bedrooms and living rooms as the first assembly line for making these inks. This is my cofounder Nikhil's own bedroom, that is being used to supply inks to artists all around the world, who would paint with AIR-INK. And that's him, delivering AIR-INKs to the ports so that the artists around the world can use it. Soon, we started seeing that thousands of artists around the world started using AIR-INK, and artworks started emerging like this. Soon, thousands of black-and-white, pollution-made artworks started emerging on a global scale. And believe me, for a group of scientists and engineers and inventors, there was nothing more satisfying than that the product of their work is now being used by some of the finest artists around the world.
Nakon mnogo rada u laboratoriji, dobili smo ponudu velike korporacije za isprobavanje ove ideje. Desilo se da je u pitanju bila marka, i nismo oklevali. Rekli smo: „Idemo!“ Pronalaženje u laboratoriji je jedno, a pretvaranje ideje u stvarnost je nešto sasvim drugo. Na početku, morali smo da koristimo naše domove i kuhinje kao fabrike mastila, a naše spavaće i dnevne sobe kao montažnu traku za pravljenje mastila. Ovo je spavaća soba suosnivača Nikhila, koju koristimo za snabdevanje umetnika koji bi slikali ovim mastilom po celom svetu. A ovo je on, isporučuje mastilo lukama kako bi ono stiglo do umetnika širom sveta. Ubrzo smo počeli sretati hiljade umetnika širom sveta koji koriste vazdušno mastilo, i nastajala su umetnička dela. Ubrzo, hiljade crno-belih dela napravljenih od zagađenja se pojavilo na globalnom nivou. A verujte mi, za grupu naučnika, inženjera i pronalazača, nema ničeg boljeg nego da proizvod njihovog rada koriste neki od najuticajnijih umetnika širom sveta.
This is the cover of "Contagious" magazine last year, that was done by using the same ink that we made back in our labs. This is a famous painting by the British artist, Christian Furr, who painted it for the song "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones. Now, there's more to this pen and this ink than just the popular and pop-culture artworks. And now our goal is to create a company that can actually make some black money -- I mean, just money --
Ovo je prošlogodišnja naslovnica časopisa „Contagious“ koja je urađena od mastila iz naše laboratorije. Ovo je poznata slika britanskog umetnika, Kristijana Fura, koju je naslikao za pesmu „Paint It Black“ od Roling stounsa. Ovo mastilo i ova olovka su više od popularnih dela iz pop kulture. Sada je naš cilj osnivanje kompanije koja bi pravila crni novac - mislim, samo novac -
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
and high-quality printing processes and inks that can replace the conventional black inks that have been produced for the last thousands of years around the world.
i kvalitetna mastila i procese štampanja koji bi zamenili konvencionalna crna mastila koja koristimo u svetu već hiljadama godina.
Soon after our growing popularity and artworks around the world, we started facing a very different kind of a problem. We started getting spammed by polluters, who would send us bags full of pollution to our office address, asking us, "What can we do with this pollution?" Our lab back in Bombay right now has pollution samples that have come from London, from India, from China, you name it. And this is just the beginning. This polluter sent us this specific image, asking us that these are all bags filled with PM 2.5, and can we recycle it for him if we paid him some money. Well, what would he have done if we did not take that pollution? He would probably find a nearby river or a landfill and dump it over there. But now, because we had the economics of AIR-INK figured out on the other side, we could incentivize him to give us this pollution and make inks from it, and turn it into even more valuable products.
Ubrzo nakon što je naša popularnost u svetu počela da raste, počeli smo se suočavati sa novom vrstom problema. Počeli smo dobijati neočekivanu poštu od zagađivača, koji bi nam slali pune džakove zagađenja na našu adresu, i pitali: „Šta možemo uraditi sa ovim zagađenjem?“ U laboratoriji u Bombaju trenutno imamo uzorke zagađenja iz Londona, Indije, Kine, itd. A ovo je samo početak. Ovaj zagađivač nam je poslao ovu sliku i kazao nam da su ovo džakovi puni čestica PM 2,5, i da ih možemo reciklirati ukoliko mu platimo. A šta bi on uradio da nismo uzeli te džakove? Verovatno bi ih bacio u obližnju reku ili deponiju. Ali sada kada imamo razrađenu ekonomiju vazdušnog mastila, podstakli smo ga da nam preda to zagađenje i da od njega napravimo mastilo, i da ga pretvorimo u vredniji proizvod.
Now, pollution, as we all know, is a global killer. We can't claim that our ink will solve the world's pollution problem. But it does show what can be done if you look at this problem slightly differently. Look at this T-shirt I'm holding right now. This is made from the same AIR-INK I'm talking about. It's made from the same pollution that is inside this petri dish. And the same pollution we are all breathing in when we are walking outdoors. And we are on our way to do better than this.
Zagađenje je, kao što znamo, globalni ubica. Ne možemo tvrditi da će naše mastilo rešiti problem zagađenja u svetu. Ali pokazuje šta se može uraditi ukoliko se ovaj problem posmatra malo drugačije. Pogledajte majicu koju trenutno držim. Napravljena je od istog vazdušnog mastila o kome govorim. Od istog zagađenja koje je u ovoj Petrijevoj šolji. I to je isto zagađenje koje udišemo dok šetamo napolju. Ali stvari su krenule nabolje.
Thank you very much.
Hvala vam puno.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)