I am on the road, three in Ancona and one in Jesi, the four “smog-eating” buses of the Purifygo project, which translates to “Purify & Go“, requested by Conerobus, the public transport company of Ancona and its province in collaboration with Ansaldo Trasporti
The buses are equipped with a filter system capable of stopping particulate matter with a diameter of less than 10 micrometers (PM10) and then collecting particles measuring PM2.5. Each bus covers a different type of public transport area, ranging from the city center to the countryside. Each filter unit is capable of filtering 486,000 litres of air per hour. Assuming each bus is in operation for twelve hours per day, the filtering capacity of each system installed on the bus is 12 million liters of air per day per bus.
Therefore, the four buses are able to filter a total of 4.2 billion litres of air during the three-month trial period. Once the experiment is over, indications can be obtained from the filters themselves on the degree of pollution in the areas covered. Comparing the different filters will allow the most effective materials to be chosen for the next industrial steps.
Our company, which operates in various branches of public transportation, is collaborating on the project with the Italian company AGT Engineering, which manages the control center in Rome where the most important system parameters are monitored in real-time. Particulate matter with a diameter of less than 10 micrometers and especially PM2.5 particles are increasingly linked to health problems such as asthma and lung cancer, and road traffic is one of the main causes of this type of pollution in urban areas.
Ansaldo Trasporti is looking towards the future of public transport with increasingly green technologies. “Sustainability is an integral part of our corporate identity,” said Gennaro di Sarno, CEO of Ansaldo Trasporti., Our heritage is rooted in the determination to contribute to increasingly sustainable mobility through projects, investments, and new partnerships. This project marks the beginning of a new era of sustainable mobility, in which our company intends to be a protagonist with projects and technologies increasingly oriented towards environmental protection