Super Plants to Clean Indoor Air … Or Something Like That – CleanTechnica

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Plants already do so many magical things. They are truly wonders of the world — as all life is. However, scientists continue to play with plants in order to reach new frontiers and solve more problems.

One new plant is the Neo Px. It is a bioengineered plant that can purify indoor air like nothing before it. “It’s the equivalent of up to 30 regular houseplants in terms of air purification,” said Lionel Mora, co-founder of startup Neoplants, which created the plant. Also, it’s not like it captures the pollutants and then needs to have them removed somehow, like having to change a filter. “It will not only capture, but also remove and recycle, some of the most harmful pollutants you can find indoors.”

When will this super plant be for sale? It already is. For now, it’s only for sale in the US, where the creators figured they could find buyers since a large number of Americans buy air purifiers. And, at the moment, demand exceeds supply. “We do our best to send as many plants as possible every week, but it’s not enough to meet demand for now,” said Mora.

Also note that the increasing problem of wildfires makes this a more and more important solution for millions of Americans. Plus, there are various things in modern society that cause indoor air quality problems that Neo Px can help eliminate. “Indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than outdoor air, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, mainly due to volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. VOCs are gaseous pollutants that can accumulate indoors and negatively impact air quality and health,” Phys Org writes. “Opening windows won’t help much because the VOC pollution can come from solvents, glues and paints, and therefore could lurk in cleaning products, furniture and walls.”

Oh, but wait, we skipped over an important part. It’s not exactly the plant that does the magic here. It’s some bacteria. It’s “packets of powder that contain a microbiome, essentially a bacterial strain,” that do the most work. They are sold along with the Neo Px plant, with the price of the package coming to $120. “This bacteria colonizes the plant’s roots, soil and leaves,” says Patrick Torbey, a genome editing researcher and the company’s chief technology officer.

The company’s research lab is in Saint-Ouen, France, a little outside of Paris. The researchers do plan to make the plants able to more directly do the air purification through their own modified metabolisms. They are also tackling an even bigger problem — global heating. The Neoplants team is also working on bioengineering plants that absorb far more CO2 than your typical green buddies. “We could increase the capacity of trees to capture CO₂,” Torbey said. Then there’s the need for climate adaptation, which is already the order of the day. Mora adds that they could also “develop seeds that are more resistant to drought.” These are some massive challenges and noble goals. Are the scientists and their bioengineered plants up for the task? Let’s hope so!

In the meantime, you can buy your own Neo Px from Neoplants right here. It’s got 4.8 stars according to buyer reviews. There are also videos from customers there that you can watch.