The N&N Group was at Mater Brunch: Fotocataliti-qué?
This last Thursday, Anna May, in representation of the N&N Group, went to “Mater Brunch: Fotocataliti-qué?“, a meeting about photocatalysis that took place at Materfad, the Materials Center in Barcelona. The topic of the session was the new materials based on photocatalysis that are being developed to improve the quality of life and of the urban environment.
Materfad organized a meeting between professionals, which counted with the experience of Breinco, Active Walls, FYM-Italcementi Group and the Iberian Association of Photocatalysis (AIF).
The program consisted of four presentations and a networking session accompanied by a buffet:
14:00: “Introducing the AIF (Iberian Association of Photocatalysis)” by David Almazán (Iberian Association of Photocatalysis).
14:15 h: “Photocatalysis inside buildings” by Jesús Serra (Active Walls).
14:30: “Key issues on cement-based photocatalytic products” by Rafael Jurado (FYM-Italcementi Group).
14:45 h: “Technology AirClean®: flooring and facades that reduce air pollution” by Gemma Pages (Breinco).
Although the meeting was basically dedicated to materials for construction (either indoors or outdoors), it is always good to know the priorities, state of the market and companies interested in photocatalysis, since our group is also working in this field.
Some interesting facts that were mentioned were the high degree of contamination in big cities, such as Barcelona; the consequences of this high pollution in people’s health (high mortality), although people are not aware of it, or the fact that Barcelona does not comply with the existing NOx limits.
Another think to take into account is that the air of our houses or workplaces (indoors), where we spend more than 95 % of our time, is also polluted, although we do not notice it.
The speakers mentioned that there are not conclusive results about the diminishment of the pollution when using these photocatalytic materials: experiments outdoors show results from 15 to 40 % of reduction of NOx, whereas experiments indoors show results up to 90 % reduction.
