The world is grappling with the problem of climate change due to anthropogenic greenhouse gases. Recently, IPCC highlighted that the world has less than 10 years to halve the GHG emissions to avoid an apocalyptic situation. While the world is struggling to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, there are several non-carbon-dioxide pollutants that also contribute significantly to global warming. Some of them which to not have a long life but have a high global warming potential when suspended in the atmosphere are called short-lived climate pollutants.
Black carbon, which is a pollutant released majorly from burning of fossil fuels is a short-lived climate pollutant which has global warming potential 460 times that of CO2. Reports and research by leading world scientists indicate that the fastest way to mitigate loss of crops, global warming, sea-level rise, melting of polar ice caps as well as glaciers and disruption of rainfall, is to drastically reduce black carbon emissions from diesel and rural residential sectors. However, the world is still heavily reliant on diesel and hence the emissions continue to be high, resulting in a climate catastrophe.
Moreover, WHO estimates that ambient air pollution is a leading cause of death, with an estimated 3 million deaths per year in 2015. Emissions due to combustion of fossil fuels consists of PM10 and PM2.5, which are known to cause lung cancer, COPD, ischemic heart disease and stroke. The situation is worse in India with 22 Indian cities making it to the list of top 30 most polluted cities of the world for PM2.5 pollution.
Chakr Innovation has come up with two-pronged approach: a low-hanging fruit for quick climate action to reduce black carbon as well as a long-term solution to store emission-free energy.
Chakr is an award-winning cleantech hardware start-up founded by IIT-D graduates in 2016. Chakr’s mission is to help people breathe cleaner air along with abating climate change by developing & commercializing scalable technologies.
Chakr’s first product is Chakr Shield, which effectively captures up to 90% of the particulate matter from its exhaust. It is a compact, affordable and robust technology which achieves high emission reduction without affecting engine performance and consuming less than 1% of the energy. Chakr Shield effectively provides cleaner air by capturing carcinogenic pollutants right at source, prohibiting them from being airborne. This solution comes at a fraction of a cost of a new engine to the end users and can enable a quick transition to reduced SLCPs emissions from diesel engines. The Indian patent for this technology has already been granted to Chakr Innovation, with 9 more patent pending features.
They have already successfully commercialized Chakr Shield and are in process of launching an Aluminium-based Energy Storage system for EVs and replacement of diesel gensets.
Diesel Generators are used a prime source of back-up power with over 1500 GW global installed capacity. Chakr Shield which has already been deployed across capacities ranging from 25 kVA to 3000 kVA, covering most of the DG sets. Use of emission control devices can reduce the overall ambient air pollution by 9-15% in most Indian cities. The estimated GHG reduction from adoption of Chakr Shield is likely to be 10.5 million metric tonnes by 2027 by market capture in India alone. Chakr’s solution can be readily extended across countries in Africa and South East Asia, which can contribute to further GHG reduction and reduce health hazards due to ambient air pollutions in these countries.
Further, Chakr’s second product, can fasten the transition towards electric vehicles by providing a higher energy density and tropical environment compatible substitute of Li-Ion batteries. This will be a long-term solution which will ensure zero-emission vehicles and power backup solution altogether.
Founded by engineers from IIT-D (Kushagra Srivastava, Arpit Dhupar and Bharti Singhla) in 2016, Chakr has now grown to a team of 90+ professionals who are passionate about creating climate impact. Over the last 6 years, the team has filed 13+ patents, out of which one patent has also been granted. Chakr has raised funding from esteemed investors including the SBI Neev Fund-II, Parampara Capital, ONGC, IAN Fund, Globevestor, etc. Headquartered in Delhi NCR, they have a manufacturing and engineering unit in Pune as well as a Sales & Operations set-up in Chennai.
He is the CEO of and co-founder of Chakr Innovation. He is an IIT Delhi graduate in Textile engineering. He is also an Echoing Green Fellow, one of the 7 MIT GSW fellows (selected by MIT USA) and recognized by Forbes 30-Under-30 Global.
Bharti is a co-founder and COO at Chakr Innovation. She is a chemical Engineering graduate from IIT Delhi. She worked with the Boston Consulting Group before joining Chakr to pursue her passion for preserving the environment. She was awarded as “Women Entrepreneur of the Year by TiE Delhi NCR” and was recently also featured as one of “100 Emerging Women Leaders” by YourStory.
Tushar is a mechanical engineering graduate with Masters in Thermal and has done his MBA from SP Jain, Mumbai. He has over 18 years of work experience and was previously working with Cummins India Pvt Ltd. He is the CTO and heads the R&D function at Chakr Innovation.
