Nanogate and its cooperation partner ALRON, a Swedish manufacturer of special chemical products for the construction industry, have been awarded a prestigious contract by the city of Stockholm. In the city’s Södra Länken tunnel system, which is about 16 km long in total, all of the exposed concrete is to be coated using Nanogate Technology®. NanoGuard®StoneProtect will reduce dirt adhesion significantly, making cleaning much easier. The operator will thereby incur lower cleaning costs and be able to reduce considerably the use of environmentally harmful cleaning agents.
The Södra Länken tunnel system is the largest in Sweden and the largest city tunnel in Europe. Constant exhaust fume pollution forces the operators of the tunnel, the sides and ceiling of which are clad in exposed concrete, to undertake cleaning operations regularly at great effort and expense. In addition, traffic must be diverted during cleaning, which leads to considerable indirect costs and imposes a major burden on Stockholm’s entire traffic system, its inhabitants and, not least, the environment.
Coating reduces dirt adhesion significantly. The tunnel will no longer need to be cleaned as frequently and aggressive cleaning agents can be largely dispensed with. Simple water treatment is all that is needed to clean the dirt from the concrete. Even highly stubborn grime is easier to remove. The markedly reduced dirt adhesion will improve road safety in the tunnel as the exposed concrete can serve as a reflecting surface once more. The project’s sales potential runs into low-end six-digit figures.
For Ralf Zastrau, CEO of Nanogate AG, the contract is a signal. “This key order from Stockholm shows that we are ahead internationally with our Nanogate coating system and that our technology has opened up another new market,” he said. “Among other things, the NanoGuard® product family makes an attractive contribution in the increasingly important area of ‘green nanotechnology’.”