How Roadvent captures and cleans pollution before it's inhaled
Our founder had a simple question while standing beside a queue of idling traffic: could the road itself capture these emissions? That question became a three-stage filtration system, independently tested at UTAC Millbrook Proving Ground.
PM2.5–PM10, captured by the electrostatic and HEPA stages, down to 0.3μm.
NO₂, NO, VOCs and H₂S via activated carbon filtration.
SO₂ and HCl, captured by the same broad-spectrum carbon stage.
Baring Road Primary School — a Roadvent case study with Lewisham Council.
Planning permission has been granted for Lewisham Council's Roadvent pilot trial at Baring Road, funded and supported by the Mayor's Air Quality Fund and delivered with support from Pollution Solution. Lewisham will be the first council in the UK to install such a system.
The school sits within an Air Quality Management Area and an Air Quality Focus Area. Traffic queues outside and nearby reduce air quality for children in the playgrounds and classrooms — exactly the kind of hotspot Roadvent is built for.
Discreet green Roadvent extraction slots in the carriageway, and an air handling cabinet inside school grounds behind an existing brick wall — so the footpath keeps its full width and the visual impact stays low.
A detailed acoustic assessment found low noise impact, and additional independent air-quality monitoring is already in place to validate the system's performance.
How Roadvent works.
Select a stage to see what happens.
Vehicle emissions
Traffic pollution is at its most concentrated right where it is released, at the roadside, where people breathe it in.
Roadvent inlet
Discreet linear slot drains set into the carriageway sit almost flush with the road surface. Cars, cycles and pedestrians pass over them like any other section of road, while they draw in emissions at the point of release.
Air extraction
A central extraction pipe carries the air to a purification cabinet beside the road. Energy-efficient fans pull it through, and speed up as the filters load to hold suction constant.
Filtration
Three stages: electrostatic precipitation, HEPA filtration, then activated carbon to adsorb harmful gases before the air is released.
Monitoring
Every unit has a hardware controller, paired with monitoring software that shows live status, filter condition at each stage and alerts for the maintenance team, over the cabinet’s 4G connection.
Cleaner air
Filtered air is released at the roadside. Independently measured at UTAC Millbrook Proving Ground, Roadvent reduced exposure to vehicle emissions at child face-height by 91%.
Rated efficiency of up to 98% down to 0.3 micron. Filters removed and cleaned at service intervals.
Secondary-stage removal of particles down to 0.3 micron, in optimum conditions, depending on HEPA grade.
Final-stage adsorption of harmful gases before atmospheric release.
UTAC Millbrook Proving Ground, Bedford
A full-scale Roadvent installation, used for demonstration to interested councils, partners and press.
Request more information →
See Roadvent at UTAC Millbrook Proving Ground.
Footage from the full-scale Roadvent installation, a shortened cut of the full test showing the vehicle approaching, drone and overhead views, smoke visualisations and emissions capture at the intake slots.
Built into the road surface.
Roadvent's intake slots sit within the top level of the road surface, almost flush with the finish — so cars, cycles, motorcycles and pedestrians pass over them as they would any other section of carriageway. Discreet linear slot drains connect to a compact roadside air handling unit, creating targeted suction at the source — capturing pollutants, filtering and releasing cleaner air in real time.
Every Roadvent unit is run by a hardware controller at the roadside, paired with software that lets operators see how it is performing and plan maintenance remotely.
Offered in a range of finishes and colours.
The Roadvent air handling unit is available in a choice of finishes and colours — shown here in beige, and in green at the top of this page.
Ask about finish options →
#1001Filters the air at road tunnel ventilation outlets.
Explore Tunnelvent →Registered office: Manufactory House, Bell Lane, Hertford, SG14 1BP
(+44) 0203 475 8741