Discover the 10 winning innovative projects of the Air Quality Experimentation Programme


Originally published on Paris&Co’s Urban Lab.

Improving air quality is a major concern for the City of Paris. Mayor Anne Hidalgo and her team have made it a priority since the beginning of their term in 2014. The industrial sector and the research realm are also highly engaged on this issue, helping to develop relevant solutions.

Paris&Co’s Urban Lab, Airparif and the City of Paris have decided to mobilize the entire ecosystem interested in air quality to try and advance progress. In December 2017, a call for experimentations was launched. The programme’s partners responded to this call: research organisations, industrial groups, start-ups… 46 propositions were received, which shows an incredible dynamism around this issue. The winning project will enjoy the opportunity to test their innovative solutions in a real world conditions. A jury comprising representatives from the City of Paris, Urban Lab and Airparif, along with air quality experts, selected 10 pilot projects across measurement, depollution and support for behavioural change.

These 10 projects will be supported in their implementation and the evaluation of their concept in real conditions by the experts from the Urban Lab and with the scientific help of Airparif. The aim is to start these pilot tests by summer 2018, once the appropriate locations for the tests have been identified.

“This call for projects is a new important step for the advancement of knowledge, and to test solutions, which can deliver better air quality in Paris. It results from our determination to make it easier for people to work together, from world leading experts to those that have a great idea they want to bring to the table. It is through a collective and committed approach that we will face this great public health and quality of life challenge,” said Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and Chair of C40.

“These 10 promising projects will be tested over a period of 6 months to one year, allowing us to analyse in detail the different factors influencing their relevance: technical capacity; user uptake; potential obstacles; reasons for success; potential for expansion,” said Albane Godard, director of the Urban Lab.

“Airparif will support these experiments in order to evaluate their efficiency in the improvement of air quality, and their replicability in other territories. The 10 winners offer interesting projects: they respond to issues of both outdoor and indoor air quality, and aim at reducing the pollution that people are exposed to,” adds Frédéric Bouvier, Managing Director at Airparif.

The 10 winning projects have been officially unveiled on March 26th at Le Pavillon de l’Arsenal.

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List of the 10 winning projects:

Improvement of outdoor air quality:

  1. Connected sensor to raise awareness amongst car drivers — IFPEN: Raising awareness amongst car drivers of their ability to reduce emissions through a connected sensor and the GecoAir app (calculating the emissions produced by type of vehicle).
  2. Healthy air in a green city — MVAW: Air depollution solution based on plant-based biofiltration by substrate action, plants and micro-organisms.
  3. AntiSmog — Net SAS: Solution to reduce polluting emissions from vehicles directly, by the optimization of fuel combustion.
  4. Multi-physical measurement stations — SimEngineering: Evaluation in real conditions of multi-physical measurement stations: air/noise/traffic station and noise/dust stations, destined for construction sites among others.
  5. Micro sensors network — Clarity & Citeos: System for the surveillance of air quality, based on low-cost sensors, installed on public lighting poles.

Improvement of indoor air quality:

  1. Air4Kids — VentilairSec: Improvement of air quality in the Etablissements d’Accueil du Jeune Enfant (young children services) through an innovative ventilation system, filtrating exterior pollutants entering the building, ventilating the premises to control air renewal and chase the soiled air away.
  2. UMPAI — AirLiquide: Technology of filtration by absorption of the COVs and of formaldehyde, derivate from an AirLiquide industrial process for air purification.
  3. Smart QAI — Nanosense: Test of automatic control algorithms and regulation of ventilation, heating and air conditioning, according indoor air quality.
  4. Moanho — Blue Industry and Science: Measurement solution for the concentration of anaesthetics in the air of operating rooms, via a highly sensitive spectrometer (equivalent of 400 lasers).
  5. QAI Monitorig — Zaack: Study of the impact of a detailed and continuous monitoring of indoor air pollution in nurseries.