[AirZen Radio] The 100% positive radio showcases LuminoKrom® technology

Innov'Climat: a committed event supported by ADEME for a sustainable future

AirZen Radio highlights the Innov'Climat event, organized by ADEME to promote concrete solutions to climate challenges. The event brings together companies, local authorities and innovative players committed to the ecological transition. Among the technologies presented, LuminoKrom® photoluminescent paint takes center stage, demonstrating its impact in making infrastructures safer while reducing their energy footprint.

Innov'Climat is a veritable laboratory of ideas and action, where ecological innovations such as LuminoKrom® are part of a sustainable vision that respects the environment. This event illustrates ADEME's commitment to accelerating the ecological transition by promoting solutions that combine innovation, efficiency and sustainability.

Podcast transcript

And so you see a marking that has caught the light during the day? Is that the paint?

LuminoKrom® is a paint that is capable of capturing light during the day and then releasing it at night for over 10h00 without consuming any electricity, because it's a simple paint. Paint, who's going to emit this light? So where does this innovation come from? Well, we were inspired by algae and fish, over 90% of which in the ocean use bioluminescence and photography. So, bioluminescence is actually what fish do? Well, they feed themselves and transform some of the energy they get from food into light. And there's a 2nd phenomenon that we wanted to use, which is that of capturing sunlight, the energy of light around in the ocean, and transforming it into light. And why do fish and algae use this luminescence? Well, quite simply to find their bearings. So in fact, well, that's what the OliKrom company has done.

This knowledge and this biomimicry, well, we're painting roads to make pedestrians safer. And bicycles? So we created the first photo-luminescent bike path in Pessac, Gironde, in 2018. And today, 6 years later, it's still working. And little by little, cities began to understand the benefits of photo-luminescent paint. Today, there are over 400 projects in France, and I urge you all to go to the LuminoKrom® website and look in the tab you'll see, there's one of the tabs. You'll see a dynamic map of the world, showing all our projects. And take a look to see if your city has already experimented with this, and if it hasn't, if it hasn't deployed it, well, somewhere ask why it's not yet available in your city. The advantage of this luminescent paint is that it captures light during the day and releases it at night. This not only provides security, but also reassurance. In other words, at night. Well, you know, when you're a child, you always have a little star that you put on top of the ceiling to reassure you when you're young. Well, you're still a big kid, and at night, you're still scared.

And the fact that today, when there's luminescent paint on sidewalks, well, it's going to reassure local authorities, and maybe even help them to accept the idea of switching off street lighting earlier. So that's the innovation we've achieved. And today, well, this paint is produced in Pessac. And we're exporting it not only in France, but also internationally, since we've already completed cycle paths and pedestrian walkways in Malaysia, Brazil, India and Africa. Because behind this light, it's a very simple way of equipping.

We look at a painting, you put it down in the morning and the same evening. It works in comparison with public lighting, where you have to dig trenches. You're going to have to install a whole wiring system. So for many countries, it's a very rapid development solution. In terms of price, a kilometer of photoluminescent paint costs around 7,000. Euros, but just for comparison, 1 km of public lighting costs between 200,000 and 400,000€.

What kind of intermediaries do you work with, cities, regions, how does it work?

Some local authorities, towns and départements have their own road marking companies, which means they do the marking themselves. And then there are other local authorities who actually subcontract the marking to companies such as Eiffage, Signature, Aximum, Signaux Giraux. We work with all these partners, and we're very grateful to them because, well, they use LuminoKrom® paint, and for us, well, we're in the process of making Ben part of tomorrow's technologies, in other words, of making our towns and cities safer. More economical and, above all, more eco-sustainable.

As far as the environment is concerned, this paint is ecologically interesting.

Yes, it's true that we were inspired by algae and fish, but now we're synthesizing these materials, aren't we? We don't extract them from nature. On the other hand, as soon as we made this paint, well, we did, we entrusted it. A life-cycle analysis study to see what our impact on the environment was, so Apesa had access to all our formulas to understand where the raw materials came from. This enabled them to assess our environmental footprint. And they revealed, for example, that compared to public lighting, we solved over 99% of the depletion of raw materials and had no impact on water eutrophication or a very very low impact. And all these elements, well, lead us today to see that our solution. Well, it's an ecological gain.

Another element that has been taken into account is light pollution. It's not a question of adding pollution. In light and photoluminescence you see just to see clearly. It's a very very soft, very diffused light, in fact, which illuminates less than 10,000 times as much as public lighting. So we're not replacing public lighting, we're just guiding people, guiding the elderly to see, to orient themselves, to be reassured in a space. And you have to realize that if you arrive in the middle of a full moon. Well, you won't see the luminescence. In other words, when there's a full moon, you can see your shoelaces and find your way around the room. So what does that mean? Well, you can't see the luminescence because the surrounding light is stronger than the paint emits. On the other hand, as soon as you come across a sky that's black or not at all. Bad weather, rain, fog? Well, that's when the light will appear. We're gradually developing this type of painting in public spaces.