While non-smokers are finding it difficult to breathe in the poisonous smog of the NCR-Delhi region, imagine how much worse it’d be getting for regular smokers. Coming to their rescue, are folks from IIT Roorkee. The team has created what it calls the Post purification Filter (or PpuF), which can make the smoke inhaled through cigarettes almost chemical free (and smell free too!). Yes, you can smoke a little less guilty now!
How did PpuF come about?
PpuF is a plug-on filter for cigarettes, that designed to filter out toxins from the smoke while retaining the flavor of the cigarette. This is a big deal – since many smokers are likely to reject any add-ons or other ‘safe smoking’ methods becaues it takes away the flavor, or as they say, ‘the feel’. With PpuF however, the flavor is retained. The smell too, is taken away – reducing the social awkwardness smokers occasionalyl face when they’re back after having lit one up.
The filter lasts for about 4-5 cigarettes – pand delivers a smooth, unhindered experience while it lasts. It’s the first kind of safe smoking measure that smokers might actually take up without trouble!
A bio-safe plastic casing is used to encase nano-composite filter particles, which bind the cancer causing toxins. The idea for the product came up after watching the statutory warning at the start of a movie. “We saw a video on YouTube in which a person demonstrated how harmful a cigarette can be by passing its smoke through water. We conducted the same experiment with and without our material and the results were astonishing! We took some feedback from smokers of different age groups in our network and realised that this is something people, especially mid-aged, feel a need for.”, says Akshay Singhal, the CEO of Log9 Materials.
The beginning of Log9 Materials
The Log9 journey was started by Akshay Singhal, a post-graduate student at IIT Roorkee. He founded the company in collaboration with the TIDES Incubation center at his university. Today, they have a robust team of over 10 individuals with expertise in Nanotechnology R&D. The start-up is at the moment functioning from its new Headquarters and R&D Center in North Bangalore.
Other collaborations
Log9 is also trying to collaborate with various tobacco companies to ensure the incorporation of this technology into the cigarette itself. Log9 has a signed agreement with a pharmaceutical company for the sale of a plug-on variant (PPuF) for cigarettes under the Brand Name ‘Filtr’. It has already been launched in the market this year. Log9 is also developing cigarette cessation therapy where different variants of PpuF will cut different levels of nicotine and eventually help a smoker quit.
Also read : The business of Purification
PpuF Sales
Sales have been pretty impressive so far. In the initial phase PPuF was made available at cigarette vendors in the Delhi-NCR region. It witnessed monthly sales of over 10,000 pieces via offline and online channels. “Without any expenditure on marketing, we were able to sell around 41,750 (Till April 2017) PpuF orders are still coming in online. We have stopped selling offline as that was not Log9 Materials’ vision and we just wanted to prove ourselves in the market but continued selling the product online.”, says Singhal.
Future Projects
Log9 has two ultra futuristic and visionary projects under it’s umbrella. They have a Graphene Quantum Dot based display panel and a graphene coating based air conditioning and cooling system. Both projects have given very promising results in their initial stage. “Graphene coating based air conditioning is an extremely revolutionary product. It can cut down household electricity usage drastically, reduction in space required and cost of equipment.” Additionally, the team from Log9 is also working on quick to market applications like improved Li-Ion and Lead Acid Batteries
Also read: Graphene: The super-eminent replacement to everything
“We have achieved 35% improvement in Lead Acid battery efficiency. Our Household Air Purifier unlike others currently available can remove VOCs, SOx and NOx.”, says Singhal. These products should be out soon, expected to be in the market soon by early next year.