The air cleaner
Benjamin Herzog is building green air pollution filters in Adlershof
He can never quite let go of the material that his business model is based on. In his spare time, Benjamin Herzog likes to frequent the lakes around Berlin, either by canoe, surfboard, or on a sailing boat. “I try to carry a test tube with me wherever I go so I can capture intriguing algae when I see them.”
The 39-year-old Magdeburg native has been intrigued by the water weeds ever since he studied biology at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. Algae grow five to ten times faster than other plants. They can serve as a sustainable resource for producing biogas, because, unlike corn, they don’t require fields to thrive that could otherwise be used for growing food.
And they also have the quality, congenial to us humans, to feed on substances in the air we breathe that we perceive as pollutants: carbon dioxide, fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, volatile chemicals.
It is precisely this particular appetite of algae that is exploited by a device developed by the Adlershof-based “Solaga” company, founded by Herzog and his friend Johann Bauerfeind, which is the only company worldwide to produce it in series. Their device essentially looks like a painting on a wall: a square cloth mat, 50 by 50 centimetre, coated with algae, and framed behind glass. When hung on a wall, it is capable of sucking between 30 and 50 percent of the floating pollutants out of the air in a room. A 300-millilitre water tank on the back ensures continuous moisture. It is recommended to replace the water every two weeks, and the algae mat every six to twelve months.
An algae-coated screen doesn’t use electricity, saves carbon dioxide, and makes any mechanical air purifiers obsolete. To Herzog, this is an advantage that shouldn’t be underestimated, considering the amount of a building’s energy consumption that can be attributed to air conditioning. His company has produced 90 such screens “and also sold them all. We don’t have a large warehouse, because they are selling like hot cakes.” With its seven employees and eight interns, Solaga has been working on 110 square metres at the Centre for Photovoltaics and Renewable Energies on Johann-Hittorf-Strasse since 2017. The company boss has a history with the area: “I guess you could say I have been in Adlershof since 2003.”
Herzog started studying biology then, switched to law briefly, worked a while for a patent law firm, before finally finding his way back to biology. He has big plans for the alga. Can it be used to face buildings? How can we use it to produce biogas? He is researching both.
From his private home in Berlin-Pankow, he takes the S-Bahn to Adlershof. Occasionally, he does some of the journey on inline skates. He raves about skating along the Teltow Canal: “I love to spend time in nature.”
By Winfried Dolderer for Adlershof Journal