From theory to practice: ICAS 2026 brings visitors to CSTEP's air quality lab

During the India Clean Air Summit (ICAS) 2026, #CSTEP had the privilege of hosting Dr Ratish Menon (Member Secretary, Kerala State Pollution Control Board), as well as members from Clean Air Fund (Shriram Manogaran, Aakriti Kapoor, and Arundhati Kamat) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) (Dr Hiroaki Takiguchi and Kenta Takahashi), at our Indi-SET facility. They got a sneak peek at our low-cost sensor (LCS) test bed and air quality monitoring station.

The guests were interested in understanding the challenges of operating and maintaining LCSs deployed on-site and in the field. For environmental dust monitors and FIDAS, the discussion focused on understanding the importance of size-segregated particulate matter (PM) mass in addition to the routinely measured PM2.5 and PM10 mass concentrations. It also focused on understanding the PM mass concentrations and their trends in #Bengaluru and evaluating the performance of LCSs with respect to reference instruments.

During the discussion, we showcased our real-time chemical speciation laboratory, consisting of a Time-of-Flight Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (ToF-ACSM), an aethalometer, and Xact 625i, which enables the identification and quantification of contributions from different pollution sources in near real-time.

The discussion also revolved around understanding how the percentage contribution from biomass burning appears on an aethalometer in real-time; how the ACSM can detect different sources; the major sources of elemental PM2.5; and how this can help us determine local vs regional contribution to PM2.5 in Bengaluru.

There was a rich exchange of varied scientific perspectives, highlighting how advanced measurements and analytical techniques can deepen our understanding of air pollution and inform effective mitigation strategies.