Pune-based technology startup, Pi Green Innovations has begun piloting its 'filter-less' technology in collaboration with a few state transportation units (STUs). 

Company's co-founders Shantanu Sonaikar and Irfan Pathan in an interaction with Autocar Professional pointed out that though it may take a few years for heavy vehicle segment in India to reache meaningful conversion levels of e-mobility, the filter-less technology developed by them can be used in the intermediate period.

"We are doing the analysystics on it which requires driving these vehicles across different conditions and geographies," the duo noted. In layman's language, filterless technology is based on an electrostatic precipitator and has an auto cleaning mechanism. " We have designed it in such a way that we can do an auto clean cycle to clean charge plates without any downtime", the duo continued. Further, the carbon byproduct derived out of the process can be forward integrated into manufacturing of carbon black which is used in the tyre industry apart from other uses. Pi Green, which also does similar retrofitting in diesel generators, has set up about 150 installations across India, which it claims releases 97 percent carbon.  

Furthermore, it comes at a fraction of cost at a maximum of about Rs 3.5 for retrofitting a bus with filter-less technology. A complete transition to EV on the other hand costs around Rs 3-3.5 crore in case of a bus, which may not be financially viable for STUs and fleet operators under the present economic uncertainties. Even the scrappage policy which was introduced recently by the Government is applicable for vehicles which are older than 15 years, though there are thousands of buses and trucks which are hardly 5-10 years old but have covered 10-15 lakh kilometers, thereby conyributing to toxic fumes in the environment.