Is this giant, smog-sucking vacuum cleaner the solution to air pollution?

Dutch inventors have unveiled what they called the world’s first giant outside air vacuum cleaner - a large purifying system intended to filter out toxic tiny particles from the atmosphere surrounding the machine.

“It’s a large industrial filter about eight metres long, made of steel... placed basically on top of buildings and it works like a big vacuum cleaner,” said Henk Boersen, a spokesman for the Envinity Group which unveiled the system in Amsterdam.

The system is said to be able to suck in air from a 300-metre radius - and from up to seven kilometres upwards. It can treat some 80,000 cubic metres of air an hour, filtering out 100 per cent of fine particles and 95 per cent of ultra-fine particles, the company said, referring to tests carried out by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) on its prototype.

“A large column of air will pass through the filter and come out clear,” Boersen said, speaking on the sidelines of a major two-day offshore energy conference in Amsterdam.

Fine particles are caused by emissions from burning wood and other fuels as well as industrial combustion, and have “adverse effects on health,” according to the European Environment Agency.