UTEC, the Engineering and Technology University and creator of the first drinking water-producing billboard, is building its new campus. A university seeking to change the world through engineering had to do it differently. For this reason, a working team partially made up of UTEC engineers was formed for the project.

With Lima’s pollution problem in mind, technology developed exclusively in Peru was to be used. In the end, what the working group developed was the first billboard that purifies more air than 1200 trees.

The technological device used with this billboard takes in the dust in the air, filters it with a water system, and emits clean air, offsetting consequences of pollution such as life-threatening diseases including cancer which, according to WHO (World Health Organization), are caused by small particles of solid matter in the air.

The billboard has been installed in the middle of the construction site of the new campus, where it produces 100,000 m3 of clean air for the area within a 5-block radius, benefiting both residents and construction workers.

UTEC engineers used existing technology, modifying it and adapting it for use with the billboard. Therefore, even though the technology already existed, its use for this purpose was innovative, as it had never been considered or used for this purpose.

It is a multidisciplinary technology developed according to international and national urban air quality standards. Its low cost and easy maintenance make it ideal for mitigating pollution caused by solids in the air. Its operation is based on mechanically recreated thermodynamic processes involving air and water flows, whose enthalpy is balanced under thermodynamic conditions, causing the solid particles in the air to remain in the water.

In the future, making this system a mandatory standard practice on construction sites is sought, in order to greatly reduce air pollution and to improve working conditions for construction workers.

Obviously, this billboard has made waves in the media, as well as among the brand’s target group. Once again, UTEC has demonstrated that is possible to change the world through engineering.