Pollution-eating pavers improve air quality

So-called ‘pollution-eating’ pavers with the ability to significantly improve surrounding air quality have arrived on the Australian market.

The extraordinary technology was developed by Italian concrete company Senini, which was looking to create a self-cleaning concrete product to protect buildings and masonry pavements from the ravages of pollution, mould and lichen.

The manufacturers discovered that the self-cleaning EcoTop pavers displayed remarkable pollution-eating properties as a surprising by-product. Mixing the hi-tech cement — now branded as TxActive — with titanium dioxide accelerated a breakdown of pollutants when exposed to sunlight or UV rays. The pavers generate a photocatalytic process that replicates the way trees naturally exchange noxious pollutant gases and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, turning them into pure oxygen.

According to Senini AP (Asia Pacific) CEO David Autengruber, paving an area of 1000 m² with EcoTop pavers is equivalent to planting 80 deciduous trees with the same air-cleaning impact on the environment.

“It sounds hard to believe, but worldwide experience and testing has shown over and over again that it really does work and significantly reduces air pollution,” he said. “Given the enormous health impacts of air pollution, this photocatalytic reaction of the pavers and its benefits should be really exciting news for the Australian construction industry.”

Autengruber said European and American authorities found that the EcoTop range of pavers reduced pollution in treated areas by 20–70%, dependent on the amount of sunlight they were exposed to.

“Another benefit of the pavers, particularly for the Australian market, is that through surface ‘hemispherical emissivity’, they also significantly reduce heat absorption, having great solar reflective values. Typical stone pavers can reach 50–60° on the surface, during a hot Australian day, whereas the EcoTop pavers will keep surface temperatures down to around 30° in the same conditions,” he said. “That’s a huge benefit given our sometimes unrelentingly hot climate.

“I really believe this ‘climate neutral’ technology and its benefits are just too good for the Australian construction and infrastructure sectors to ignore any longer.”