New Delhi, Jan 23 (IANS): Japanese technology and appliances major SHARP Corporation expects a major push in India from the Plasmacluster Ion (PCI)technology featuring in its appliances, which enables them to identify and remove toxic air pollutants.

Indian Institutes of Technology, Delhi have verifed the company's Plasmacluster Ion (PCI) technology.

The technology is a significant feature in its air purifier segment as it efficiently removes Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, company officials said.

"Sharp Corporation, working in collaboration with Associate Professor Sagnik Dey and Associate Professor Gazala Habib of IIT-Delhi has demonstrated that Plasmacluster Ion (PCI) has an efficacy to remove PAHs (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons), which are contained as toxic air pollutants in Indian cities," the company said in a statement.

The project started in 2018 by measuring the composition of particulate matter in air pollutants in New Delhi NCR region of India. As a result, many types of pollutants were identified, including PAHs, which are known to be toxic to the human body.

Sharp Business Systems (India) Managing Director Shinji Minatogawa said that this is the first time the company has carried out such verification process in India in collaboration with academic faculty, and said that it is the start of making people know about the technology, which it uses in several of its products, including refrigerators, air conditioners apart from air purifiers.

"Plasmacluster Ion is a revolutionary air purification technology from which positive ions and negative ions are released into the air simultaneously. These positive and negative ions instantly recombine on the surface of pollutants such as bacteria, viruses and chemical compounds floating in the air to form hydroxyl (OH) radicals, which have extremely high oxidation ability, and this chemical reaction decomposes the cellular compounds or chemical structures, thereby neutralizing their toxicity," the company said in a statement.