Blocken, an expert in the field of air flows, is enthusiastic about the technology that ENS has developed, whereby a positive electric charge is applied onto minuscule particles in the air, after these are captured on a negatively charged plate. “A film of dirt is formed on the plate. Those are all particles that were in the air and that are extremely injurious to people’s health.”

In car parks a lot of particulate matter accumulates that is emitted by cars, he says. “In the test conducted by ENS in a car park in Cuijk it turned out that not only had the air quality in the garage itself improved, but the rooms located above it also stayed much cleaner. People literally needed to clean their furniture less frequently.”In a joint project, sponsored by Smart Energy Regions Brabant, ENS and TU/e are now going to see what effect the installation of particulate matter filters in car parks inside the Eindhoven ring road would have on the air quality in this area. “We have a big computer model for the air flows within the ring road of Eindhoven, with all the buildings incorporated into it. Now we are going to add the locations of the car parks to this model so as to get an indication of what maximum can theoretically be achieved in terms of air purification.”