Putney High Street could become the first road in Britain to be treated with a new surface spray that breaks down nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel vehicles.

 

American company Pureti has devised a so called photocatalytic treatment that takes in diesel emissions, reacts with light and converts the pollutants into less harmful carbon dioxide molecules or water vapour.

 

The treatment has previously been applied to the exterior of a building in Camden and is now to be tested on a highway, with the London Borough of Wandsworth considered a front runner to pilot the intervention.

 

Road surfaces are likely to receive the treatment using either a crop sprayer or spray gun and one litre could cover around 75m² of highway. The company says that an application on a trafficked road can last up to two years.

 

“Local authorities can introduce this treatment to areas of immediate concern to help improve air quality,” said the company’s managing director James Pack.

 

Potential gains to be had from specifying a photocatalytic treatment on roads to tackle urban air pollution are detailed in a new report published last week by trade body The Environmental Industries Commission. It also considers other technological interventions such as the greater roll out of electric cars and retrofitting 10,000 buses with emissions control exhaust systems.

 

The Commission’s executive director Matthew Farrow said: “There are huge challenges in tackling urban air quality but there is no single solution.” Use of photocatalytic treatment to help combat pollution could, he added, be “applied in combination with other measures” and be useful as “a short term measure to tackle pollution hotspots”.

 

(Photo: Google Maps)