Carbon tiles out of polluted air

Tejas Sidnal

Founder of Mumbai-based startup that is creating carbon tiles out of polluted air

As an Architecture graduate, Tejas Sidnal would always be drawn towards sustainable architectural solutions and the role of biomimicry in achieving that. Biomimicry is a method where human-related problems are solved by mirroring designs and ideas found in nature.

Years later, his passion found purpose when he came across a video by Air-Ink, an organization specialising in processing air pollution into soot used to make black ink. The video got him thinking of using biomimicry and architectural design to create a building component out of air pollution. In other words, he eventually started Carbon Craft Design, a Mumbai-based startup in 2019, to produce carbon tiles using components sourced from Air-Ink.

“Each carbon tile is equivalent to cleaning 30,000 litres of air! Moreover, these tiles consume only one-fifth of the energy required to manufacture vitrified tiles. This means, instead of burning the tiles to come up with the finished product, we use a hydraulic press that helps us in manufacturing these tiles,” says Tejas.

Infused with materials like marble chips, marble powder, cement along with a proprietary binder, these handcrafted tiles, for now, can only be used for interior construction, but research to develop tiles worth exterior construction is also underway.