These techies freshen up the air for Delhi's pollution-hit bike riders

Innovative helmets use patented technologies to provide clean air to the breathing area

In December 2016, when the whole of Delhi-NCR was gasping for fresh air, an idea quietly germinated in the minds of two young engineers. The goal was to provide fresh air to motorcyclists, and thus the concept of Shellios was born.

That was the first time that the severity of the air pollution levels in NCR was widely publicised by the media. Amit Pathak, a Bachelor in Engineering from IIT Roorkee and an MBA from ISB Hyderabad, and Mayank Pathak, a BE from NIT Surat took on the challenge of improving air quality. By then, the duo had already put in several years working with large corporates and technology companies such as Wipro and Patni Computers.

After a few months of developing the concept at the Noida incubation facility of CDAC, their venture, Shellios Technolabs, was born in July 2017, and the two techies began a journey to develop what is known today as the “world’s first clean air helmet”.

These helmets not only protect riders from road mishaps but also from the acute pollution that the NCR faces practically every winter, as a thick blanket of smog engulfs Delhi and the surrounding regions. The condition is so alarming that this year the Supreme Court imposed a complete ban on stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana and areas in Western Uttar Pradesh, apart from stopping all construction and demolition activities in Delhi-NCR for now.

The Shellios Puros helmet (Top); A diagram showing how the helmet works

“We had bought an air purifier for our house, but I wondered what riders would go through in the toxic air,” said Pathak, the current CEO of the two-year-old start-up, who started his career at Wipro Technologies in 2000. His intention was to create something original, so he and his co-founder Mayank Pathak started working on the prototype and came out with their patented Shellios air purifier helmets called Puros in 2018. The unique idea was backed by former Flipkart chief financial officer Karandeep Singh, who led the first investment round at the Delhi based start-up this January. And in June, the company started selling the product on its website and through distributors.

The Shellios helmet consists of a filtration membrane, a blower fan, a lithium-ion battery, LEDs to indicate status, printed circuit board and a micro USB charging port. It also has a chin curtain that prevents the re-entry of polluted air in the breathing area. Once you press the start button, it pulls the outside air, passes it on through a hepa filter and circulates the clean air with the help of ducts on to the breathing area of the rider. The filter battery has a 3,300 mAh capacity that can run for 4-5 hours with a single charge.

“As per lab tests, it helps reduction of bikers’ exposure to polluted air by more than 80 per cent,” claims Pathak. The company has filed patents both in India and abroad for several of the innovations it has come out with, in the process.

On its way to commercialisation, Shellios helmet has also achieved several feats such as winning the Design in India challenge by global chipmaker Qualcomm in 2018.

Priced at Rs 3,900, the Shellios Puros helmet could also be upgraded to a communications helmet with a communications device at an additional cost of Rs 1,200. This will enable the user to navigate, listen and talk at ease. The helmets, which weigh around 1.6 kilograms, are made on a contract-manufacturing basis in Delhi and the hepa filters are imported from China.

Shellios is also in the process of developing a mobile app that would give real-time information on the surrounding air quality and filter conditions, along with alerts for filter replacement.