Developing Self-cleaning and Air Purifying Transportation Infrastructure Components to Minimize Environmental Impact of Transportation

Developing transportation infrastructure without compromising environmental quality is of paramount importance. This can also lead to improvement in the US economic competitiveness, which is intimately linked to modern transportation systems. However, developing such system in a sustainable way is not trivial. The proposed paper will explore a topic of self-cleaning and air purifying structural components, which can save energy via reducing of surface contamination (e.g. soiling), improve environment via decomposition of pollutants emitted from the vehicles and protect human health by decreasing the ozone levels in urban environment. We will look into concrete, glass and asphalt coated with inexpensive photocatalytic films, which are currently being developed in collaboration with a small New York (NY) based company. This paper will assess the long term performance and air purifying potential of these films, which will be done in collaboration with the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and the Brookhaven National Lab. Moreover, this project will have an enormous impact on a career development of the principal investigator (PI), who is the first ever Provostial appointment in Materials and Environment area here at Stony Brook. Ultimately, the above-mentioned approach can have a significant relevance to the U.S.Department of Transportation (DOT) goals, such as development of livable communities by providing an access to environmentally sustainable travel options. It can also have a potentially transformative impact in terms of another DOT goal focused on environmental sustainability, where self-cleaning properties of the coatings can improve both energy and water conservation. This paper also aims at contributing to Focus area 5 (Promoting livable and sustainable communities through quality of life improvements and diverse transportation development) and Focus Area 7 (Promoting freight productivity, efficiency, and sustainability through multi-modal policy, planning and logistics). The proposed work project will involve both literature and experimental components as we already accumulated some background data to make a significant progress in this area. For example, we currently have all experimental setups necessary for measurements of self-cleaning properties of coated concrete and asphalt. Moreover, this will be complemented by experimental apparatus for determining atmospheric pollutants removal, which has been already tested in our lab.

Language

  • English

Project

  • Status: Completed
  • Funding: $12930.00
  • Contract Numbers:

    49997-10-24

  • Sponsor Organizations:

    University Transportation Research Center

    City College of New York
    Marshak Hall, Suite 910, 160 Convent Avenue
    New York, NY  United States  10031
  • Project Managers:

    Eickemeyer, Penny

  • Performing Organizations:

    State University of New York, Albany

    1400 Washington Avenue
    Albany, NY  United States  12222
  • Principal Investigators:

    Orlov, Alexander

  • Start Date: 20120901
  • Expected Completion Date: 0
  • Actual Completion Date: 20130930
  • Source Data: RiP Project 33099

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01466492
  • Record Type: Research project
  • Source Agency: University Transportation Research Center
  • Contract Numbers: 49997-10-24
  • Files: UTC, RIP
  • Created Date: Jan 3 2013 3:23PM