Better air for Munich

Ludwigsburg/ Munich/ Bayreuth, November 4, 2021 - Over the past three years, the Ludwigsburg-based filtration specialist MANN+HUMMEL (Germany) has installed more than 400 Filter Cubes worldwide, spread across 140 columns. The systems clean almost two billion liters of air per hour. That is roughly equivalent to the demand of air of 4.1 million people. Along Landshuter Allee (Munich, Germany), nine more columns with a total of 27 Cubes will ensure better air in Munich from November onwards.

"Many people think intensively about the one kilo of food and the three liters of liquid they consume every day. But we very rarely think about the quality of the approximately 12,000 liters of air that each of us breathes every day," says Jan-Eric Raschke, Director Air Solution Systems at MANN+HUMMEL.

Breathe easy

In order to avoid having to worry about the air quality in Munich and to be able to breathe easy, the Filter Cubes developed and produced by MANN+HUMMEL will clean the air along Munich’s Landshuter Allee from November onwards. When the project is completed, a total of nine filter columns and 27 Filter Cubes will ensure a reduction in particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone concentrations along the road.

"We all agree: it would be best if our air was so clean that it didn't need to be cleaned at all," Raschke said. "Unfortunately, it is not. Cities and metropolitan areas in particular face enormous challenges. At MANN+HUMMEL, we have made it our mission for eight decades to separate the useful from the harmful. Providing clean air with state-of-the-art filter technology is one of our main goals."

Scientific support for the project in Munich is being provided by researchers from the Universities of Bayreuth and Augsburg, the East Bavarian Technical University of Regensburg and the Technical University of Munich. "Based on the different expertise of the four project partners, we can get a very comprehensive picture of the real effect of the air filter systems along the road. We will take a close look at the filter material, test the use of the filters in the field, and measure air quality, air transport and traffic patterns in the process," explains Prof. Anke Nölscher, who is coordinating the project at the University of Bayreuth.

The goal of the project, which is funded by the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment, is to further improve air quality in Munich. The project also aims to show how the air filtration systems can be used effectively in real urban environments so that the legal limits along Landshuter Allee can be complied with as quickly as possible.

Efficient air filtration - scientifically proven

MANN+HUMMEL has developed the Filter Cube technology for particularly polluted roads and junctions. The Cubes draw in the polluted air and bind over 80 percent of the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM10). The heart of this technology is a combination filter, which comprises a highly effective particle filtration layer and activated carbon layers that adsorb nitrogen dioxide. These activated carbon media absorb NO2 very effectively due to their large surface area. The technology is characterized by a particularly low pressure drop. As a result, it effectively cleans the air with very little use of energy. Thanks to their modular design, the Filter Cubes can be assembled to form a filter column.

In addition to various locations in Germany, MANN+HUMMEL Filter Cubes are also used in Brazil, China, India and South Korea, among other places. Further projects are currently being planned in Hong Kong, Mexico, Colombia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

The first systems were installed in December 2018 in Stuttgart, the capital of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. In 2020, a scientific report that examined the effectiveness of the installations along the street "Am Neckartor" concluded that, on average, a reduction of nine percent in nitrogen dioxide pollution was achieved, and in the area of the sidewalk and close to the buildings even a decrease of ten to 19 percent. The studies focusing on particulate matter PM10 showed a reduction of more than ten percent on average. Ozone concentrations were reduced by more than eleven percent.

Background

Initially, seven Filter Cube III columns have been installed along Munich’s Landshuter Allee. In the further course of the project, two more Filter Cube III columns will follow. 

Under the leadership of the team of Prof. Christoph Thomas, Micrometeorology Group, and scientific coordination of Prof. Anke Nölscher, Atmospheric Chemistry Group from the Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences at the University of Bayreuth, a total of four projects are underway at the Universities of Bayreuth and Augsburg as well as at the East Bavarian Technical University of Regensburg and the Technical University of Munich. The projects are devoted to the laboratory investigation of filter effectiveness, model simulations for studying the effect of the air purification systems within the street canyon, the recording of fleet composition, traffic volume and traffic flow, and street-to-neighborhood-scale measurement of air quality at several locations in the test field.