This outdoor air purifier makes your wait for the bus 40% less smoggy

China’s campaign to wipe out air pollution reduced the levels of dangerous particulate matter in the air by 11 percent last year, according to the Ministry of Environment. But the country still has a long way to go before the air its citizens breathe every day can be considered healthy. Only eight out of the 74 cities surveyed met basic national air quality standards.

In the meantime, public awareness is rising. Pollution masks are hot commodities and startups making new models for indoor air purifiers are driving prices down. Now, a new invention currently being tested in Hong Kong claims it can reduce air pollution in an open outdoor space by an average of 40 percent (h/t to Techweb).

The City Air Purification System, a research project from design and engineering firms Sino Green and ARUP, looks sort of like a small bus stop shelter, and that’s on purpose. Anyone standing near it, such as those waiting for a bus next to a busy street, can reap the benefits of cleansed air. Here’s how it works, according to Sino Green:

Under the prototype of the patent-pending system, air is drawn into the system from the inlet located at bottom. The air current then passes through a bag filter, which is effective in removing fine suspended particles (PM10 and PM2.5), before coming out through the louvre overhead.

Hong Kong has been testing 2 meter-by-3 meter purification station on one of its busiest streets, queen’s Road East in Causeway Bay, since March. Sino Green tells Tech in Asia one unit costs HKD 600,000 (US$77,400). (Update: an earlier version of this story referenced the Techweb article that said the project cost US$10 million to develop. Sino Green has informed us that figure is not accurate.)

Air quality at the station can be monitored remotely. Further planned enhancements include smart controllers to manage operating hours more efficiently, solar panels for energy, and a mist cooling system for summer months.

Techweb says the City Air Purification System will be tested at Beijing’s Tsinghua University next. If all goes as expected, it could expand to other mainland cities in the future.