By Elias Marat | The Mind Unleashed
A Mexican university student has earned praise after creating a new rubber pavement made from recycled tires that regenerates every time it rains.
Israel Antonio Briseño Carmona, a civil engineering student at the Autonomous University of Coahuila in Torreón, Mexico, created the new self-regenerating pavement as a means to address the problem of damaged pavement and potholes in cities where rain occurs regularly, as is the case across Mexico.
The new invention could save billions of dollars on infrastructure costs for governments and construction companies around the world.
The invention has already earned Briseño the national top spot as a 2019 James Dyson Award winner for Mexico.
Briseño told Mexican news portal Expansión:
“What happens is that when it rains, water filters down to the subbase [of the pavement], creating a fault, and when cars pass over it, it collapses. That’s why I wanted to turn the main material that deteriorates into one that can recover. This project [can allow] water to instead be a source of maintenance for our roads.”
The young man devised the idea last year after he first experimented with a formula using asphalt before he tested a formula using recycled rubber from tires, which would make the roads both cheaper and more sustainable.
In April, Briseño patented his new invention under the name Paflec.
According to the James Dyson Award website, rainwater would allow the rubber and various additives to become a putty-like substance whenever it comes into contact with water, allowing for the “regeneration and physical-chemical improvement of the pavement.”
Briseño hopes to team up with a construction company from whom he could get a 5 percent commission on whatever the total costs would amount to, but he hasn’t yet formed such a relationship with any companies. A partnership remains necessary for the young inventor to certify and tender such a project.
