Air Pollution: This Delhi startup founded by IITians converts diesel smoke to printer ink

On a hot afternoon in Delhi, a 22-year old techie went out to sip a glass of sugarcane juice with his friend but instead found a solution to a problem which has become a major health hazard in India's cities.

“My co-founder noticed that these roadside vendors use small diesel generators to power the crushers. But the walls behind these engines had turned black because of the smoke. And that’s where our idea for a refined ink emerged,” said Kushagra Srivastava, CEO of Chakr

Chakr is a Delhi-based startup, founded by three IIT Delhi graduates- Kushagra Srivastava, Prateek Sachan (COO) and Arpit Dhupar (its CTO). The trio started the company in the year 2015 while studying at their alma mater.

Air pollution has become a major health hazard in India's capital. "In 2015, World Health Organisation (WHO) tagged Delhi as the most polluted city in the world and that's when we started thinking about the idea,” said Kushagra.

The trio started researching about the problem and found that about 16 to 18 percent of particulate matter PM2.5 in India is generated from stationary diesel power generators.

The startup launched their first pilot in 2016 and won the 'University of Chicago's Urban Labs India Challenge' in 2016.

The company invented a device which can be retrofitted on a diesel generator. The device can capture 90 percent of particulate matter emission.

“We tried various things such as cleaner fuels, more efficient engines but narrowed down to building a retrofit device that could fit on the exhaust pipe,” said Kushagra.

The captured pollutant - black carbon, is later processed by Chakr and converted into inks and paints.

“The device needs maintenance every three months so we have made a deal with our customers that we will take the end product which is the black carbon soot and give them maintenance in return,” said Kushagra.

The startup's ink product is called POINK (Ink from Pollution). It can be used in numerous applications for textile printing, cardboard printing, painting etc.

“One of our client for POINK is Dell Corporation. We contribute some percentage of their requirement which they use it in their packaging. We are able to sell the ink at a higher rate (than other similar inks) because of its pollution angle and environmental sustainability,” said Kushagra.

He added, “Another reason for selling it at a higher price is because of the high production cost and which is likely to reduce with time and scalability."

The startup is working with leading giants like BSNL, MTNL, ATC, Reliance, and others. It also has a strategic collaboration with BOSCH and Indian Oil for product research and development.

Clearly, a glass of sugarcane juice sipped in 2015 has changed lives of these three techies. The ink product also holds the potential to improve the health of lakhs of employees who work in factories with diesel power generators in India.

The company has raised a seed funding of Rs 1.6 crore via grants from American Society of Mechanical Engineers, IIT-Delhi, FICCI. The University of Chicago in collaboration with Delhi government also funded Chakr with a grant of USD 100,000 in 2016.