All of India’s major cities suffer from high amounts of pollution. While the US gets all the press for being the world’s largest producers, pollution is much more noticeable in Indian cities. Fortunately a team of Italian inventors have found a solution for this increasing problem, pollution-eating cement. Now Real Estate Developers have the opportunity to build green buildings and absorb pollution form sources outside of the structure.
Western Europe has already started to use the new cement called TX Active in building and streets. The town of Segrete in Northern Italy has repaved a street that sustains 1,000 cars per hour. Italcementi says it has measured 60 percent reduction in nitric oxide on that particular street. The cement substance cuts pollution levels by between 20 and 70 percent, but only within about three metres of a structure coated in it.
Here’s how it works: The active principle—basically a blend of titanium dioxide that acts as photocatalyzer—can be incorporated in cement, mortar, paints, and plaster.
In the presence of natural or artificial light (this applies also indoors) the photocatalyzer significantly speeds up the natural oxidation processes that cause the decomposition of pollutants, transforming them into less harmful compounds such as water, nitrates, or carbon dioxide.
The India government should quickly require developers to begin to incorporate this material in large commercial projects including highways. The cement will not stop pollution but will certainly help to reduce its negative effects on the environment and people with allergies. Can you imagine highway barriers that absorb pollution like a sponge?
In fact just such a design that incorporated the cement earned 2nd place in the 2007 Metropolis Next Generation Design Competition. The team is working on a prototype now and should be ready for testing by early 2008. The highway barriers they designed will also battle light and noise pollution as light and sound bounce around inside the structure because the walls are porous (like a sponge).
This is just what India’s major cities need. A substance that helps absorb pollution and sound – two of the most annoying problems in India’s cities today.
For more information on the superABSORBER project, visit http://www.field-office.com/superabsorber.html.
Sources www.got2begreen.com and Italcementi
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