LISA is testing the efficiency of depolluting construction materials in Belgium

As a member of the PhotoPaq european consortium, LISA is involved in the measurement campaign going on in Leopold II tunnel in Brusells. The aim of this campaign is to test the depolluting effect of photocatalytic cement in association with UV light.Cement has been applied on a 100-meter long portion of the tunnel. A large set of instruments has been deployed in the tunnel and in a close-by room in order to observe the cement effect on air quality. The results of this experiment should be published in 2012.

To clean urban air, photocatalytic self-cleaning and “de-polluting” materials have been suggested as a new remediation technology. Under the combined action of UV light and a catalyst, these materials act as sinks for nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. The associated technologies have now been launched on the European market with the aim to have a positive impact on urban air quality. However the real impact on air quality has still to be demonstrated and this is the main objective of the PhotoPAQ project (1).

Note

(1) PhotoPaq is : Institut de recherches sur la catalyse et l'environnement de Lyon (Ircelyon, France), Institut de combustion, aérothermique, réactivité et environnement (ICARE, France), Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (IfT, Allemagne), Bergische University Wuppertal (BUW, Allemagne), CTG Italcementi Group (Italie), Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering (LHTEE, Grèce), Belgian road research centre (BRRC), Laboratoire inter-universitaire des systèmes atmosphériques (LISA / IPSL).

More information

- Read the article and see the RTBF report
- See the Télébruxelles report

Contact

Jean-François DOUSSIN , LISA