The Ultimate Green Building Eats Smog

The Ultimate Green Building Eats Smog

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Beijing isn't the only city with a bad smog problem. Mexico City has a long and sad history with air pollution, too, though it's been trying for years to make things better. Here's the latest: a building that "eats" smog.

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As this article from Bloomberg Businessweek details, a facade, created by a German company called "Elegant Embellishments," was built on a local hospital. It's coated with a "special pigment" called Prosolve 370e that can breaks down air pollutants into elements such as carbon dioxide and water. And it's not a filter, either -- the pigment doesn't have to be replaced. It can work its magic until it naturally wears off in about a decade.

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It "eats" quite a bit, too. Elegant Embellishments co-director Daniel Schwaag told Businessweek that third party testing showed that the facade can break down a day's worth of smog produced by the "8,750 vehicles in Mexico City." Could this smog-eating technology come to America soon? We could certainly use it.