businessweek.com — With concerns over pollution reaching an all-time high, an Italian company has developed an interesting solution. It is TX Active: a concrete that breaks down pollutants in the air. In cities with pollution problems, both the company and outside experts estimate that covering 15% of visible surfaces with TX Active could abate pollution by 50%.
Nov 10, 2006 View in Crawl 4
waterdragonNov 11, 2006
HAHA Beware of Italians wiith new ideas about how to use concrete!How about some new overshoes? The bottom of the river is nice! Really, it is! --Tony (I'm allowed to joke about Italians.)
cytranicNov 11, 2006
I'm always digging down the people who say dupe, but in this case its needed. This story has appeared on the front page at least 3 times in the past 2 months.
l0t3kNov 11, 2006
they should just put solid waste materials in our concrete instead of landfills. Less concrete, less landfill... it's a win-win, I tell you! ;)
rocksliceNov 11, 2006
This is a duplicate. Story appeared on front page 3 days ago. Digg this one down, and the original one (<a class="user" href="http://digg.com/health/A_Concrete_Step_Toward_Cleaner_Air)">http://digg.com/health/A_Concrete_Step_Toward_Cleaner_Air)</a> up.Even worse, the article linked to is the same in both.
Closed AccountNov 11, 2006
> ...might as well use a concrete mixture that reduces the pollution output.Sure, that's fine... just don't go getting all green warm and fuzzy one us....on the other hand, structural concrete is at the pinnacle of 3000 years of development; let's go fsck with the basic formula so we can feel good about using one of the most energy inefficient building materials in existence... please, give me a fscking break.<a class="user" href="http://matse1.mse.uiuc.edu/concrete/hist.html">http://matse1.mse.uiuc.edu/concrete/hist.html</a>
mountieApr 2, 2007
OK, I'll bite. What exactly does troll mean by:"Do some research sometime; the production of concrete is one of the larger producers of CO2."I am a concrete producer (150,000 m3/yr), and as there are no fossil fuels in concrete (Concrete contains water, stone, sand, cement and air) I can only assume this post refers to fossil fuels consumed in producing and delivering concrete. Here are my thoughts:Stone, Sand and Water (the bulk of concrete's weight) are almost exclusively extracted at or near the production facility, minimizing transport of raw materials. These "pits" have net positive impacts on ground water and are strictly rehabilitated/revegitated during and after depletion. Concrete plants use no fossil fuels with the exception of boilers to heat water and sand in subzero weather only. Most plants are configured for the gravity feed of materials, minimizing Hydro power for running belts, pneumatics, and gates.After production, a rule of thumb is that trucking concrete rurally more than 20 minutes is unprofitable, and in a city this time would be less. Trucking concrete long distance is very rare as it will set in the truck (though chemical retardation of concrete is possible).Set concrete has no detrimental effects on water quality and is easily and widely recycled.Now let us compare this to other materials, like asphalt. Asphalt contains Ashpalt Cement which is a petroleum product, and may be shipped from the other side of the world. Asphalt is run through a huge and highly inefficient open-air blast furnace, normally heated by natural gas or another fossil fuel. Once installed, asphalt has a lifespan far shorter than concrete, and will need to be replaced several times (at the expense of more fossil fuels) if used in the place of a concrete slab.Urban planners largly agree that the only solution to urban sprawl is densification by growing "up". The material that makes upward growth possible (physically and economically) is concrete. So what "research" were you refering to? Do you know of some magical super-strong readily-available substance that people can build their homes, schools and hospitals on and out of?