An issue of Time magazine in 2008 heralded some of the most significant inventions of recent years, and less recent years as well. They narrowed their choices down to a magical 49. Not 50, not 100. And at number 37 was smog-eating cement. Trying to put this in any context is difficult insofar as inventions and discoveries go. For instance, number 38 on the list was Baseball Instant Replay. And at number 22 was the Shadowless Skyscraper, whatever that is. Time described smog-eating cement this way: “Take ordinary cement. Mix in an agent called a photo-catalyzer (titanium dioxide, if you really want to know), which speeds up the natural process that breaks down smog into its component parts. Now start paving things with the stuff. That’s what they’re doing in Segrate, an Italian town near Milan. The smog-eating cement is called TX Active, and the Italian firm Italcementi spent 10 years developing it. Now there’s a busy street in Segrate that’s covered with it, and Italcementi claims it has reduced nitric oxides in the area by as much as 60 percent. Bonus, buildings made with TX Active stay cleaner too.” However, there is a subsidiary called Essroc that dispenses this product in America.
December 22, 2014 
