Almaty's toxic air crisis sparks solar-powered purification innovations

Almaty's Air Pollution Worsens by 30% in One Year, Public Fund Warns

A recent report by the public foundation Almaty Air Initiative reveals that air pollution in the city has surged by 30% over the past year compared to the previous period. The findings are based on data from sensors installed across different districts. According to experts, the annual average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) now exceeds World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines by sixfold.

For years, Almaty has repeatedly ranked among the world's most polluted cities in international assessments. Environmentalists sound the alarm: toxic exposure for residents is rising rapidly, demanding urgent action.

The issue of air pollution in the megacity has persisted for decades. As early as 2008, local inventor and physicist Aleksandr Nizovkin designed a stationary street air purifier that could be installed at bus stops, underground pedestrian crossings, and other high-traffic areas.

The device operates on solar power, filtering harmful pollutants using the "electric wind" effect. In 2013, Nizovkin secured an innovation patent for his invention, and a year later, he won third place in the EXPO 2017 project competition.

We visited Aleksandr Valentinovich at his home. Unfortunately, he dismantled the prototype long ago, citing a lack of demand. He had once offered to test the device with officials from Almaty's ecology department at the city administration (akimat), but his proposal was rejected.

Nizovkin envisions that to bring the purifier to market, ten units would need to be manufactured and installed at various city locations for a year of comprehensive testing.

"Launching a pilot project required a modest sum—just around $10,000," the inventor explains. "If tangible results were achieved, the idea could be scaled up. Almaty's air basin is enormous, spanning 30,000 cubic kilometers. That's why it makes sense to purify the air at low altitudes, where people actually breathe. This is the localized cleaning method I proposed."

His purifier works by ionizing the air, neutralizing harmful particles, and depositing them onto solar panels. The accumulated grime can be easily removed by washing the panel surfaces. Similar systems have already been implemented in two of the world's most polluted cities—San Francisco in the U.S. and Beijing. These devices successfully draw in polluted air and release clean air back into the environment, with projects backed by local municipal governments.

"The main problem in our city is dust—fine particulate matter like PM2.5 and PM10, which trigger allergies, cancer, and other serious diseases," says the inventor behind the idea. "This dust rises, lingers over the city, and never settles. Local authorities have recently banned coal heating in gasified private-sector districts. It's a step in the right direction, but it doesn't solve the problem at its root. Almaty sits in a basin—a bowl covered by a lid of inversion layer. This trapped air is filled with the very same polluted particles, rising upward on their own thermal energy. If we clean the city at ground level, the upper inversion layer will disappear as well."

Beyond dust, Almaty's air is saturated with carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde—all at concentrations several times higher than permissible health standards. The cause? The city's geographic location, compounded by dense urban development that blocks winds and mountain-valley circulation from clearing the air basin of harmful pollutants.

Not long ago, the inventor developed another version of a street air purifier. The new device operates on the principle of barbotage (from the French barbotage, meaning "bubbling" or "aeration"): polluted air is forced through water, where harmful substances dissolve and settle.

Alexander demonstrated how his small, laboratory-scale unit works. The innovation could be scaled up for real-world use, much like his earlier prototype of a street air purifier. All it would take is the political will of city officials to tackle Almaty's worsening ecological crisis, which grows more dire with each passing year. But so far, that's the sticking point: Alexander has yet to bring his solutions to practical implementation.

A graduate of al-Farabi Kazakh National University's physics department, he has spent 20 years selling and installing small imported wind turbines. Operating as a sole proprietor, he serves as a distributor for a Turkish manufacturer, supplying equipment across Kazakhstan and neighboring countries. His primary customers are farmers, as well as owners of tourist bases and recreational areas.

While Alexander imports the turbines themselves, he designs the charge controllers—a critical component that converts, regulates, and distributes the electricity generated by the wind turbines—entirely on his own. His custom-built controllers significantly reduce the overall cost of his wind power systems compared to fully imported Turkish or Chinese alternatives.

According to the developer, his controllers are not only more affordable but also superior in quality to foreign models. He stands behind them with warranty service—a major advantage for consumers.

One final note: Back in the early 2000s, Almaty's very own Kulibin installed solar panels with a total capacity of 3 kW on the roof of his home. The system powers all the electrical appliances in his house and workshop and heats water. Every summer, under the government's "green tariff" for owners of solar power plants, Alexander sells the surplus electricity generated by his photovoltaic panels back to the city grid, supplied by Alatau Zharyk Company JSC.

P.S. According to the Ministry of Justice, Kazakhstan's State Register of Industrial Property lists over 37,000 inventions and nearly 10,000 utility models. The question is: how many of these have actually been put into production—and what kind of efficiency do they deliver?