A Breath of Fresh Air: Community-Driven CO₂ Filtration in New York City

This year, my team and I, Tulika Punia, Advithi Baddam, Logain Mohamed, Prashanthini Sundar, Hala Ammoura, and myself, Danya Sri Anantha Prakash, worked on a project that blends environmental justice, public health, and urban innovation to tackle a problem that impacts millions: air pollution in New York City.

Our mission was simple but ambitious: create a low-cost, portable, and community-friendly air filtration and CO₂ monitoring system that doesn’t just clean the air, but also educates and empowers residents, especially in neighborhoods most at risk, like East Harlem, the South Bronx, and Yorkville.

Why We Started This Project

Air pollution in NYC is more than just a statistic, it’s a public health crisis. Children in some neighborhoods are five times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma, and adults report higher rates of chronic respiratory issues. The problem is not equally distributed, with low-income and minority communities bearing the brunt of both outdoor and indoor pollutants from traffic, industry, and poorly ventilated housing.

We realized that while expensive air purifiers exist, most are inaccessible to the very people who need them most. That’s where our idea began: What if we designed something affordable, portable, and collaborative?

Our Approach

We built a modular device that:

• Uses activated carbon or sodium hydroxide to reduce CO₂ levels in high-pollution areas.

• Features real-time monitoring with NDIR CO₂ sensors to make pollution levels visible and understandable.

• Runs sustainably with solar panels or rechargeable batteries for 90%+ uptime.

• Connects to a public dashboard through QR codes, allowing residents to view live air quality data.

Beyond the technology, we paired this with community outreach, workshops, flyers, and feedback sessionsk, to ensure residents not only use the device but feel ownership of the project.

Creating Our Own Case Study Data

To better understand the communities we aimed to serve, we created our own case study and survey data. We conducted surveys with residents across NYC neighborhoods to measure their perceptions of air quality, respiratory symptoms, and access to information.

Key findings from our case study included:

• 41.7% of participants reported experiencing asthma, wheezing, or chronic coughing.

• Most respondents identified vehicle traffic and poor ventilation as major pollution sources.

• Over 58% believed that Manhattan had the worst air quality, while others cited neighborhoods near highways or industrial zones.

• Many expressed frustration with the lack of visible government action to address these issues.

These data reinforced the urgency and relevance of our project and guided our design to ensure that the system wasn’t just functional, but truly responsive to community needs.

Check out our research paper: https://www.ijert.org/a-breath-of-fresh-air-community-driven-co2-filtration-for-cleaner-urban-environments