Ink Made From Smog!

[Mercian]

So,

I just saw a newspaper article about a startup in India that has invented a device to make ink from vehicle smog

 

The inventer noticed that the soot from diesel cars was turning his clothes black, and thought that he could clean the city's air by making that smog in to ink.

He and his team at Graviky Labs then went about building a device that will capture particulates from vehicle exhaust. These are then processed to remove toxins such as heavy metals, and the recovered-and-cleaned carbon soot then turned in to ink for use by artists.

They have partnered with Tiger Beer to market the invention & raise investment to get the inks to market - and smog removed from our cities' air.

 

So far, they are showing spray cans and marker pens, and refill bottles for them.

I hope that they will start making carbon-black ink for fountain pens.

 

http://www.graviky.com/air-ink1.html

 

http://www.air-ink.com

 

The second website is hosted by Tiger Beer, so requires you to enter your country of residence & date of birth to prove that you are of legal drinking age.

[sciumbasci]

A most commendable initiative. I will follow it with great interest, thanks for the link!

[Astronymus]

Uhm, how toxic is that ink? I mean, the smoke out a car exaust is not just carbon powder.

[encre]

Uhm, how toxic is that ink? I mean, the smoke out a car exaust is not just carbon powder.

 

"Soot collected by KAALINK undergoes various proprietary processes to remove heavy metals and carcinogens. The end product is purified carbon based pigment"

 

Looks like the end result is perfectly safe, albeit, economically questionable.

[Astronymus]

Ah, read over that. Thx.

[sidthecat]

It's the oldest form of ink: just about all ancient inks had a component of soot. Cosmetics, too.

[Inkdot]

April's fool joke?

In reality processing the soot of car fumes may well need such investments that the price of the ink bottle will be tenfold the price of current ink bottles on the market.

Unless charcoal was used, but that would be, when presented as reused car soot ink, mildly spoken, cheating.