Air pollution from traffic effects both pedestrians and the amount of sunlight entering the atmosphere. Alcoa Architectural Products – a division of Alcoa the world’s leading producer of aluminum and aluminum-related products – has announced it has created “smog-eating” architectural panels – the world’s first coil-coated aluminum architectural panel that helps clean itself and the air around it.

Introduced in 2011, the panels utilize a proprietary process that leverages HYDROTECT™ technology from TOTO® and applying titanium dioxide, which breaks down pollutants in direct sunlight. It effectively uses free radicals generated by the titania to oxidize the organic pollutants into “harmless matter”. What remains simply washes away with the next rainfall.

The company unveiled this remarkable new product – one of the first commercial building installations of EcoClean – at the Electronic Recyclers International (ERI) facility in North Carolina late last month.

Alcoa boasts that these new panels have the capability to remove smog equal to that of around 80 trees – enough to offset the nitrogen oxide emissions of four cars per day. If true, this would be a much-welcomed innovation for large metropolitan areas.