Environmental pollution and remediation on a global scale have drawn attention to the vital need for new environmentally friendly, clean chemical technologies and processes. Ultraviolet LED (UVLEDs) are mainly employed for the photo catalytic degradation of organic pollutants present in air and water. LEDs are available as both chip and bulb types. As LEDs are energy efficient and mercury free, Shengottai municipality proposed to change all exiting streetlights to LED lights in order to reduce the electrical energy as well as the air pollution.
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United Nations adopted 17 sustainable development goals with 169 targets in 2015 to transform the planet by 2030 (“Advantages of LED Lighting”, 2016). Environmental pollution and remediation on a global scale have drawn attention to the vital need for new environmentally friendly, technologies and process. Air pollution due to human activity mainly the various industrial, mining activities and motor vehicle emissions. The removal of toxic gases has been mainly performed through the use of adsorbents. Road transport is one of the major sources of particulate matter (PM) in urban area (BP, 2018)
Inhalation if urban respiration PM is detrimental to human health not only because of its size but also due to chemical composition (Bloomberg, 2016).
Photocatalytic degradation of pollutants is mainly by the application of conventional ultraviolent lamps. Recently solid state technology has resulted in the development of compact lower cost, and environmentally friendly light emitting diodes. LEDs can emit light of different wave length (infrared, visible or near-ultraviolet) based on the composition of the semiconducting materials.
Ultraviolet LED (UVLEDs) is mainly employed for the photo catalytic degradation of organic pollutants present in air and water. LEDs are available as both chip and bulb types. As LEDs are energy efficient and mercury free. Not all LED lights is optimal, when used as street lighting.Improper design of the lighting fixture can result in glare,creating a road hazars condition (‘Council on Science’, 2012).
The first application of UV-LED as an irradiation source for the purification of air was carried out by Johnson 2003 (Dahl et. al, 2006). The photo catalytic removal of pollutants under irradiation of LEDs has been mainly carried out using ultraviolet LEDs, However some visible LED have also been applied to the degradation of a number of organic compounds in water and volatile organic compounds in air.
The emission of odorous pollutants from wastewater treatment plants, landfills, livestock facilities, exhaust emissions from automobiles, and waste water from paper production plants presents serious environmental and health concerns. Many of the emitted compounds are highly toxic and harmful to the environment. Diethyl sulfide (DMS) and nitrogen monoxide are representative compounds. LEDs have recently have been employed for the removal of gasses from air (Municipal Corporation Jaipur and Bhubaneswar).
India’s urban system is the second largest in the world with an urban population surging to 31.16% in 2011 from 27.81% in 2001 (Census of India, 2011) of the total population. As per the 18th Electric power survey of CEA, the estimated energy consumption in Indian public lighting sector with 2009-10 as the base year is about 8,478 million kWh in 2012-13. The sector will grow at a CAGR of 7% during the XII and XIII plan periods (Gentler, Gillies, and Pierson, 2000)
In Government of India, Ministry of Power (MoP) and Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) are entrusted with the task of preparing the implementation plan for the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE) under National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) (“Council on Science”,2012) This mission has a component which deals with the market based Measures to improve the energy efficiency in energy intensive area with the certification of energy savings which could be transferred. In this context, the Government of Tamil Nadu has initiated energy efficiency in street lighting by converting the exciting fluorescent tube lamps, Sodium vapour lamb and mercury lamp in to light emitting diode (LED) lamps and achieved about 50% saving on its annual energy consumption (Huang et. Al, 2009).