Audi claims that the filtration system can trap not only tyre emissions, but also various forms of microplastics.
Audi is testing a system to prevent rubber particles from damaging the environment. The German luxury car brand has announced that it is working with the Technical University of Berlin on a new filter system for urban roads. It will attempt to trap microplastics at street, drain, and sewer levels to catch them before they cause damage to the ecosystem.
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The automaker has been working with the project since 2020. According to the automaker, this filtration system was able to trap not only tyre emissions, but also various forms of microplastics in a laboratory environment.
Audi is known as Urbanfilter and aims to make its filtration system last for a full year without the need for cleaning or maintenance. Audi claims that the filtration system can be cleaned by connecting the filters and using information about the city to determine if the city is affected by major rainfalls. This will prevent microplastics from getting washed away from the ecosystem. The ADAC Driving Safety Center of luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz will assist TU Berlin in developing the technology.
Rudiger Recknagel (Director of the Audi Environmental Foundation), spoke about this technology. TU Berlin claims this filtration system can trap microplastics using ground tyre rubber, and it can do so between 20 and 1,000 micrometres.
According to estimates, around 110,000 metric tonnes of road wear particles endup on streets in Germany every year as microplastics. These microplastics can be swept through the sewer system and into the waterways, where they cause long-term environmental damage. A large portion of these microplastics is made up of rubber particles from vehicle tires.
First published date: 24 Mar 2022, 12:02 PM IST