Cleaning air cobblestones

Une rue de Hengelo, une petite ville de l’est des Pays-Bas, va être partiellement recouverte de pavés purifiant l’air, une technique qui pourrait faire progresser la lutte contre la pollution.

L’université affirme avoir développé et testé, sur la base d’une invention japonaise, des pavés contenant du dioxyde de titane, qui transforme les particules d’oxydes d’azote (NOx) émis par les voitures en nitrates inoffensifs, à l’aide du soleil. « Une averse de pluie et tout est propre », affirme l’université dans un communiqué. Les particules de NOx sont la cause des pluies acides et du smog.

D’ici la fin de l’année, la rue d’Hengelo sera pour moitié recouverte des nouveaux pavés, verts, alors qu’une autre moitié sera laissée comme elle est actuellement. « En mesurant (dès le début 2009) la qualité de l’air dans les deux parties, nous pourrons montrer l’efficacité des pavés », explique l’Université de Twente, qui prévoit de publier les résultats à l’été prochain.

« La province d’Overijssel y voit une manière d’améliorer la qualité de l’air. (…) Ce projet est très important pour le pays entier », poursuit-elle.

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Des pavés purifiant l’air testés aux Pays-Bas - lesoir.be

A street of the village of Hengelo, eastern Netherlands, will be covered with cleaning air cobblestones, a new technique that could help reducing pollution.

The university affirms it has developped and tested, on basis of a Japanese invention, cobblestones containing titane dioxyde, which transforms car-rejected NOx (which cause acid rains and smog) into inoffensive nitrats, with the help of the sun. "Add a little rain and everything is clean".

By the end of the year, half of street of Hengelo wil be covered with such cobblestones, while the other half will be let as it is today. "By measuring (in 2009) the air quality in both parts, we will be able to prove the efficiency of the cobblestones", explains the Twente university, which will publish the results next summer.

"The province of Overijssel sees it as a way to improve air quality (...) This project is very important for the whole country"

Life cycle? I wonder how long before the cobblestones are saturated and no longer performing this little miracle?

Here's an idea:

Why don't we just reduce emissions?

I'm tired of the band-aid solutions.

Middleground said:

Here's an idea:

Why don't we just reduce emissions?

I'm tired of the band-aid solutions.

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Amen, sister....
seems to me that this is probably a very expensive band-aid as well...

Middleground said:

Here's an idea:

Why don't we just reduce emissions?

I'm tired of the band-aid solutions.

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they aren't mutually exclusive. they can bring their magic cobblestones to all the regular cobblestone alleys around my house any time.

UtahBill said:

Life cycle? I wonder how long before the cobblestones are saturated and no longer performing this little miracle?

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I guess they spray something on the cobblestone so that they perform that, so they would just need to spray this product from time to time to keep it working

Middleground said:

Here's an idea:

Why don't we just reduce emissions?

I'm tired of the band-aid solutions.

Click to expand...

Of course, and they are very aware of this. Dutch people use their bicycles a lot, and 4% of their electricity comes from wind turbines (USA = 1%)
WSH-STATISTICS Windenergy World-Wide

Dutch bike laws are the best in the world.

new coup for you said:

Dutch bike laws are the best in the world.

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I don't know what you mean by "bike law" but they have build bike-only sidewalks along most of their roads, and their country is totally flat so it's often faster to take your bicycle for shopping than take a car.

That's the same in Flanders

their bike lanes are awesome.

in Philly our bike lanes, which are substantially better then most places in the US (given that they exist), are just paint on the ground that drivers are only vaguely aware of.

and watch out if there's a turning lane, because your bike lane is going to go between it and the other lane, so you and your 30 lb bike is sandwiched between two 2 ton cars.

although in my admittedly limited experience with Continental bike culture, it's not nearly as cool as American inner-city bike culture. I guess it's because it's more mainstream.

new coup for you said:

their bike lanes are awesome.

in Philly our bike lanes, which are substantially better then most places in the US (given that they exist), are just paint on the ground that drivers are only vaguely aware of.

and watch out if there's a turning lane, because your bike lane is going to go between it and the other lane, so you and your 30 lb bike is sandwiched between two 2 ton cars.

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Ah, that's like in Wallonia then!

But bicycles are not the only solution: until the 60's we had a great tramway net, there were trams (and "vicinal trains") in every city (even my village had its own station) so that you didn't need a car.

Unfortunately they have destroyed all of them, except in the center of Brussels and along the coast

Vicinal tramway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Belgian Coast Tram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

While both candidates talk about things that won't make a damn difference until years later - with exception of opening up the national reserve for immediate effects by Mr. Obama.
None of them dare talk about just how difficult both measures would be.
McCain doesn't dare mention that it would only increase our reliance on oil as well as no one seeing a single drop of that oil until at least a good decade from now and with with all economists agree would hardly make a dent.
Obama refusing to be completely pragmatic and come out to endorse nuclear power or telling the fact that even alternatives and mandates on Republic of Mexico/Detroit 3 that it would take at minimum a good half decade for us to see fruit of any such technology.
All in all the most immediate of all is none of these two have the gonnads to tell the American public that yeah, we need to be far more conservationally minded, we all need to reduce the amount we actually consume.

This is such an easy topic and achieving multiple goals with concurring just one simple topic. National security, global warming, ransom by foreign nations, change and evolving industry, new economic prospects.
There's no other issue that is so far reaching and enveloping.

bub said:

Ah, that's like in Wallonia then!

But bicycles are not the only solution: until the 60's we had a great tramway net, there were trams (and "vicinal trains") in every city (even my village had its own station) so that you didn't need a car.

Unfortunately they have destroyed all of them, except in the center of Brussels and along the coast

Vicinal tramway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Belgian Coast Tram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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That's a common plight. Philly had trams all over the city until the vast majority of them were decommissioned in the 60s. It's a real shame. The only trolley's that still run are the ones in West Philly that connect to underground tunnels going downtown.

Have you ever been to Glasgow? It's the same deal. All over the Western world excellent trolley systems were dismantled for cars.

But I have hope. Philadelphia recently reactivated a trolley line- the first in over 30 years.

And gas will soon be 6 bucks a gallon.

We'll see the trolley's again soon enough.