Photocatalytic roads: from lab tests to real scale applications

European Transport Research Review

Original Paper

Elia Boonen¹  Anne Beeldens¹ 

[1] Belgian Road Research Centre (BRRC), Fokkersdreef 21, 1933, Sterrebeek, Belgium;

关键词: Concrete roads;    Air (de-) pollution;    Heterogeneous photocatalysis;    Titanium dioxide;    Nitrogen oxides;   

DOI  :  10.1007/s12544-012-0085-6

 received in 2012-01-20, accepted in 2012-08-24,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

PurposeThis paper gives an overview of our research on photocatalytic concrete, which exhibits air purifying properties. Under the action of sunlight, a catalyst present at the surface of the material is activated, enabling degradation of pollutants from the surroundings and transformation to less harmful products. It is a promising technique to reduce a number of air contaminants, especially at sites with a high level of pollution: highly trafficked canyon streets, road tunnels, etc. In addition, the combination with cement offers some synergistic advantages, as the reaction products can be adsorbed at the surface and subsequently washed away by rain. However, the great potential of this emerging technology is hampered by the lack of uniform testing methods at European level to evaluate the photocatalytic activity.MethodsLaboratory research is undertaken at BRRC to compare existing methods and draw up recommendations for future standards. Furthermore, translation of lab testing towards results in situ remains critical to demonstrate the effectiveness on larger scale. In this perspective, several trial applications have recently been initiated in Belgium to asses the “real life” behavior.ResultsThe paper gives a short overview of the photocatalytic principle and the application in concrete, as well as some main results of the laboratory research recognizing the important parameters that come into play. In addition, the implementation efforts of some recent realizations in Belgium will be presented.ConclusionsAlready some very promising results towards air purification have been obtained. Nevertheless, further validation, also with modeling, is necessary to extrapolate the findings and enable a judicial implementation of photocatalytic road materials across the globe.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.