Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
Your industry news - first
The original and best - for over 20 years!
We strongly recommend viewing Cleanzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.
Treatment that transforms sintered stone facades into self-cleaning air purifiers wins award
Edison Awards, celebrating 31 years of honouring the best in innovation and excellence in the development of new products and services, has crowned Neolith Skyline + Pureti the Gold Collective Disruption Winner.
The eco-friendly, photocatalytic Pureti surface treatment transforms Neolith sintered stone facades into self-cleaning air purifiers - reversing pollution, dramatically improving air quality and enabling the slabs to stay cleaner for even longer.
Being recognised with an Edison Award has become one of the highest accolades a company can receive in the name of innovation and business. The awards are named after Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) whose inventions, new product development methods and innovative achievements literally changed the world, garnered him 1,093 US patents, and made him a household name around the world.
Urban air pollution is a serious problem in big cities as it exceeds the safety limits for human health in many cases. To this end, a directive has been passed in Europe whereby the EU must have reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by the year 2050, in comparison to the 1990 levels.
In response to this serious problem, Neolith joined the environmental conservation efforts with the market launch of a revolutionary treatment for its Skyline facade line: PuretI an
aqueous and titanium dioxide nanoparticle-based treatment that is sprayed on Neolith to create a photocatalytic, self-cleaning and decontaminating effect.
The Pureti treatment makes the facades continuously self-cleaning in addition to reducing the contaminating agents and, thus, improving air quality.
The technology creates self-cleaning surfaces that purify the air by means of two fundamental processes: Photocatalysis and Superhydrophilicity.
Over time, building facades become dirty and full of contaminating agents that are carried through the air to the surface. When the surface enters into contact with sunlight (or some LED lights), titanium dioxide particles are activated which use light energy to transform the moisture in the air into oxidising agents which destroy the nitrogen dioxide particles and contaminating agents and transform them into water vapour and salt.
This process, which is known as Photocatalysis, is repeated millions of times per second until all contaminants are destroyed, meaning the surface is constantly being self-cleaned.
Superhydrophilicity is produced to complete the treatment action. Thanks to the properties of Neolith + Pureti facades, water expands on the surface evenly when it rains to drag and remove any remaining dirt particles. This leaves the surface completely clean without any water marks.
"Our judges recognised Neolith Skyline + Pureti as a true innovator out of the many products in its category," said Frank Bonafilia, executive director of the Awards. "The ballot of nominees for the Edison Awards was judged by a panel of more than 3,000 leading business executives including past award winners, academics and leaders in the fields of product development, design, engineering, science and medical."
www.edisonawards.com / www.neolith.com
31st May 2018