A first depolluting façade in France

A building in Saint-Louis in Alsace, France, has inaugurated the first photocatalyst polluting façade in France. This process, usually reserved for industrial facilities, will equip a building of 51 dwellings and will allow cleaning the polluting particles present in the air. Using light, photocatalysis transforms polluting substances into compounds free of bacteria.

This work is carried out by the bricks composing the façade, which will rid the captured substances of the bacteria they contain. For the building concerned, the manufacturer estimates that these bricks could absorb the equivalent of the carbon dioxide emissions of 20 vehicles per year for an additional cost of €100,000.

A polluting facade should not be confused with a vegetated facade because in the first case, it is the material used to build the show, cement or bricks, which will allow degrading the polluting particles. Depending on the size of the façade, its depolluting capacity can be equivalent to about fifty trees.

While waiting for the generalization of this principle of depollution in residential buildings, an effective way to depollute its interior air is simply a natural ventilation of 10 minutes per day at least with which air purifiers and plants can supplement depolluting capacity such as azaleas or marginal dragon trees for example.

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