Expats seek to beat smog with technology

Woelders said his do-it-yourself system took him about a year to build. It cost over 60,000 yuan ($9,840) and required the use of more than 170 meters of tubing.

He also spent 20,000 yuan on a portable air-pollutant tester, and last week forked out another 15,000 yuan on a secondhand piece of equipment from Sweden that produces thermal images showing the flow of air in rooms to detect any potential leaks.

"The main problem with a lot of the products on the market seems to be that they are better at dealing with PM2.5 (particulate matter small enough to penetrate the lungs), but poor when it comes to PM0.3 and gases," he said.

He said his invention can remove all PM2.5 and is also "20 to 25 times better" than other products at eliminating PM0.3, infinitesimal pollutants that can burrow deeper into the lung tissue.

It is equipped with enough active carbon to trap gases easily, as well as other systems to help eliminate excess build-up of carbon dioxide, which humans create naturally by breathing.

These systems can both detoxify other gases that are produced at home when cooking or using air-conditioning units, and provide a healthy supply of oxygen so users do not, for example, wake up with headaches.

"Most products have some active carbon but they don't use a lot of it, and to function well you would need a lot more," he said, adding that he hopes to have a marketable prototype completed this year.

Despite such stopgap measures, real change can only come from the government, the industrial sector and consumers.

A recent survey showed vehicle and factory emissions make up roughly half of the sources of pollution in Shanghai, with dust from construction sites and emissions from power stations and burning straw each contributing a further 7 to 11 percent.

The government aims to reduce PM2.5 density in North China by a quarter by 2017 by drawing on an allocated budget of 5 billion yuan, Shanghai Daily reported.

In hub cities such as Chengdu in Sichuan province, heavily polluting factories are being relocated outside city limits or refused permits, and officials have been ordered to rely more on public transport.

Raising public awareness of the efficacy of face masks and the importance of making environmentally sensitive purchasing decisions is part of the mandate of Lucie Gu, who regularly blogs on such issues.

Having formerly managed a video production company with her Australian husband, she is now trying to drum up funding for a TV show.

"We're trying to do a show about the environment, and the first episode we're doing is about air quality, just trying to raise awareness, and contact local governments and push the policies. Even if it's slow, someone has to be the one pushing," she said. "We already have some people in Beijing ready to sponsor us."

When it comes to ambitious projects, few can rival the one Roosengaarde is working on.

His electromagnetic "vacuum cleaner" uses subterranean copper coils to suck in airborne particles by generating an electrostatic field. Weird science it may be, but he claims to have been granted permission by Beijing's mayor to test his theory at one of the city's parks.

Roosengaarde said a finished system could be up and running by mid-2014.

"It's hacking the landscape, in a poetic way," he was quoted as saying.