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Every human being has the right to a
enviromentally sound living standard
for himself and future generations.
Atmospheric pollution, a serious problem, isn't it?
Did you know that in China alone, over 400k people
die each year due to
pollution related diseases?
Air Pollution has been considered
a matter of public health
since the Industrial Revolution.
Machines from that time period relied
primarily on coal as an energy source
and produced many types os pollutants which
today, are present on a large scale
on people's daily lifes across the world,
influencing quality of life.
In 2009, Brazil's urbanization level reached 84%.
To sustain this growth,
the industries have evolved as well
and established in great numbers,
agravating air quality problems.
Humans depend on air and each one breathes
around 22 thousand times a day.
Now imagine yourself inhaling many types of pollutants
on each of those breaths
in partiliculte, gaseous and liquid forms...
Not a pleasing scenario isn't it?
Suffice to say that your health would be greatly affected.
Some of the gases harming
air quality are:
Carbon Monoxide, which is usually a byproduct
of incomplete combustion of fuels;
Sulfur and Nitrogen dioxides which are the big
villains of acid rain; and CO2, which
eventhough is a natural byproduct of the repisratory process,
is also a major player for Earth's greenhouse problem.
Moreover, there's also a big problem with
particulate material, which can be: grimme,
soil/earth particles, ..., dust, among other.
This is the Brazilian Steakhouse Devon´s Carnes Nobres,
located on Prof. Lysimaco Ferreira da Costa Street,
on Centro Cívico neighborhood on the city of Curitiba.
It was founded in 1987 and has become during these 23 years,
a standard of quality, premium service
and ambiance.
Here, 5000 kg of meat are consumed monthly.
To grill this amount of meat,
6000 kg os coal are required.
Devon’s Carnes Nobres is renowned for its
pleasing interiors,
but what about externally?
The Steakhouse is surrounded by commercial centers,
government offices, and also residential buildings.
On this same area is chimney
releasing around 1000 m3/h of smoke on
high demand/production hours
Now you could be wondering:
“The smoke from the exhaust of a truck
that runs on diesel or from industrial chimneys affects
both the environmental and life quality
of whom they're near, but what's wrong with smoke
that smells barbecue?”.
In excess, even good things can become unbearable
On a Sunday afternoon it's great.
But problem starts when people smell it daily.
Facing this issue, the steakhouse owner Mr. Augusto Farfus
thought: “Why not create something to solve
the problem with the smoke?
Why not a steakhouse without the chimney?”
Devon’s started tackling the issue of gas emissions
which we produce and release to the atmosphere.
This is to improve our relations with the neighboehood,
meet the enviromental municipal legislation,
and also because I believe every citizen has the duty to
contribute towards the improvement of the world he lives in.
Not just for himself, but for future generations
So Augusto contacted TECPAR,
Parana's Institute of Technology, an institution
of Research & Development, Production and laboratory analysis.
Especifically with Social Technologies Division,
that have project development experience
towards innovative environmental solutions.
After giving it a lot of thought...
study...
laboratory research...
Calculations...
Ingenuity...
plus faith and courage...
the end result was...
An automatized biological system to eliminate odour
from gaseous emissions coming from commercial activities.
Calm down, wel'll explain:
Vegetable coal is burned at the griil.
that generates smoke containing carbon dioxide,
that if not properly managed
contributes to global warming.
Besides carbon dioxide
and burned fat from grilled meat
other volatile compounds are released,
like, for example, volatile organic acids,
aldehydes and ketones.
These compounds are responsible
for the barbecue smell of smoke.
The smoke treatment system will be built here,
Abovee the grill, right beside the chimney.
The smoke that today is completely released to the atmosphere
through the chimney will be redirected
to biological reactors.
In the biological reactor there will be a liquid medium
where the smoke will be bubled.
But what is a biological reactor?
Biological reactor is the place where the smoke components
will be degraded by various types of microrganisms.
Like, for example, in this laboratory scale reactor.
The bacteria will degrade organic compounds
of smoke like organic volatile acids,
transforming them in minerals.
These minerals will be used as nutrients for microalgae.
When algas make photosynthesis in the presence of light,
it consumes carbon dioxide from the smoke, releasing oxigen.
The reactor will be built with transparent material
to allow the passage of artificial and natural light.
The protozoa perform the final polishment consuming
Algae and bacterial cells.
These microrganisms were obtainedd from water samples
wheere algae normally grow,
like park ponds or lakes for water collection.
The microrganisms are initially cultivated in laboratory
in conditions that mimic the environment of the final system.
The developed system started from an original and ingenious idea,
solving both the enviromental and social issues
the smoke released by the steakhouse caused.
This idea led to a patent.
Which means it is a copyrighted idea.
Currently, the project is
transitioning from laboratory tests to a pilot stage.
So within next three months wel'll be
installing a unit which will treat
part of the atmospheric emissions
of the steakhouse so we can test it
on real world conditions
on the local where it will be installed.
To achieve that, we needed interdisciplinarity,
professionals from diverse fields:
chemistry, engineering, management, biology,
and also institutional partnerships,
Devon's on private iniciative ,
UTFPR, through their academic staff,
like teahcers, UFPR .
And this is what we constantly seek,
as Parana Institute of Technology,
the technological development with diverse players,
because this is our job,
our state has an increasing demand for this type of solutions,
so that we can engage this loop
of continuous improvement.
As an Institute of technology,
that's what we must constantly seek.