By Mayukh Saha | Truth Theory
Shneel Malik has created a modular wall system using algae and ceramic tiles which are supposed to clean off pollutants from water. She is an Indian architect and a doctoral candidate from the Barlett School of Architecture.
Indus (the filter) contains ceramic tiles that are lined with microalgae and hydrogel taken from seaweeds. It is found to be pretty effective in cleaning water.
Algae are known for their natural cleaning properties. Making use of this, Shneel created ceramic tiles having leaf-like capillaries. She used microalgae for the project. When water is passed through these tiles, the pollutants contained in the water are absorbed by the microalgae thus leaving the water clean. This process may have to be repeated several times depending on how polluted the water is.
Indus has been made keeping in mind the pollution done by textile and dye industries. It intends to reduce water as well as oil pollution at an effective cost and with less technical investment.
