Yanbu Housing Project

In early 2014, as part of a housing ownership program in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, Cristal built homes for its employees on leased land from the Royal Commission. In an effort to reduce pollutants common to the area (SO_x, NO_x, etc.) from the surrounding petrochemical plants, the buildings were coated with a photocatalytic paint supplied by our partner Pacific Paint Inc. (Boysen) in the Philippines. The paint was produced with CristalACTiV™ products to deliver depolluting and self-cleaning properties.

For the Yanbu housing project, two different paints for indoor and outdoor surfaces were used to coat 49 villas, duplexes and apartments, covering more than 140,000 m².

Due to regulations and the Royal Commission’s ownership, the paints were selected from Boysen’s color palette to match existing colors on nearby buildings. The paints supplied by Boysen are based on CristalACTiV™ PC-500 photocatalyst that is industrially manufactured at our plant in Thann, France.

Trial Summary

• Homes were painted in early 2014; testing has been completed. The buildings and paint remain in service.
• Surfaces painted:
  • Interior – Acrylic technology
  • Exterior – Siloxane technology
• The photocatalytic paint was supplied by our partner Boysen and powered by CristalACTiV™ PC-500; the control paint was a typical commercial paint.
• Desired test response (exterior applications only) – depollution
• The reduction of standard suite of pollutants –SO_x and NO_x  – were measured by detecting the accumulation of oxidized species  using a nitrate/sulfate box
  • Strips of test paint were exposed in the box apparatus to protect the samples from rain.
  • At specific lengths of time, test strips were removed, soaked in water, and the quality of the water was measured for accumulation of pollutants.

Trial Conclusions

• The accumulation of sulfates (SO₄^2-) in the paint samples indicates the photocatalytic coating is actively reducing SOx in the housing complex.
• CristalACTiV™ demonstrates a positive impact on the environment through the ability to reduce the pollution generated by the region’s numerous petrochemical plants
• The reduction of pollutants contributes to a positive impact on our employees living in the complex.