Abstract

We propose two grand ideas to apply large-scale solar systems to mitigate PM_2.5 pollution and yellow dust storm in East Asia. The first idea employs a solar-assisted large-scale cleaning system (SALSCS) to mitigate PM_2.5 pollution in urban air (Cao et al., Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 15:1-10, 2015). The system combines a solar updraft tower with a filter bank to remove PM_2.5 pollutants. Numerical calculations show that an updraft tower with a radius of 2.5 km and a chimney height of 500 m is capable of drawing 2.5 × 10⁵ m³/s urban air into the green house. A filter bank located at a distance of 166 m from the axis of the chimney removes the PM2.5 pollutants from the urban air and thus clean air is emitted from the chimney outlet. By locating several SALSCS around the edge of a large city, it can effectively mitigate PM_2.5 in large urban areas.

© 2015 Optical Society of America