A team of students has been handed the James Dyson Award in recognition for the creation of a device that helps to bring down tyre emissions.
Students from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art designed The Tyre Collective, which uses electrostatics to collect the particles generated by a vehicle’s tyres.
Attached to the wheels, the device is claimed to collect up 60 per cent of the particulates from a tyre by using the spinning wheel’s airflow.
The system works by capturing the particulates generated by a tyre
Though the onset of electric cars is helping to reduce exhaust-based emissions, tyre particulates will continue to pollute the air no matter what type of car they’re used on.
The team – made up of students Siobhan Anderson, Hanson Cheng, M Deepak Mallaya, and Hugo Richardson – also estimate that tyre emissions might even increase as electric vehicles are heavier due to the additional batteries, and therefore put more pressure on the tyres themselves.
However, The Tyre Collective takes the collected particulates and can then use them in new tyres or in other materials such as ink. In fact, the team showcased this use by printing business cards using the ink generated from collected tyre matter.
Winners Siobhan Anderson, Hanson Cheng, M Deepak Mallaya, and Hugo Richardson
Keyword: Tyre emission-reducing device given James Dyson award