The first Transportation Technology and Industry Innovation and Development Conference was held in Suzhou from June 12th to 14th, 2025. This conference, with theme of "Towards a Sustainable Integrated Transportation System", has brought together academicians and experts, industry managers, enterprise representatives and heads of international organizations from the global transportation field. Prof. Xiao Yue, Principal Investigator of NEXCEL project TDA-3, and team members attended the conference. Dr. Chang Xiwen, the project key member, gave a presentation focusing on asphalt pavement with low environmental load, titled "Study on microstructure regulation of zeolite and its asphalt VOCs reduction mechanism" at the "Pavement Inspection and Construction" special forum.

The report carried out research on the development of new materials focusing on current situation of volatilization and efficient emission reduction of road asphalt materials. Microporous ZSM-5 zeolites are the basis materials. It was designed and prepared through microstructure regulation of alkali treatment and pore modification of metal impregnation method. The data on emission reduction efficiency confirm that the pore structure of porous zeolite does indeed increase the pore volume and pore size distribution. But mesopore leads to the intensification of aromatization side reactions at high temperatures, thereby increasing emissions of benzene series VOCs. To achieve efficient reduction of benzene series VOCs, it was proposed to carry out structural modification with metal loading on zeolites. The metal improved the distribution and quantity of B-acid on the surface and L-acid in the pores, effectively enhancing benzene series VOCs reduction efficiency. Eventually, the total VOCs reduction effect was achieved more than 35%.

The conference highlighted the accelerating transformation trend of transportation industry towards "intelligence, greenness and integration". Based on the research achievements in recent years, the research team of project TDA-3 proposed a new material and direction for green pavement development. The researchers jointly built a sustainable development strategy for low-emission road construction in the field. In the future, upgrading of emission reduction materials and technological process innovation will continue to be deepen to promote transformation of scientific and technological achievements into practical engineering applications. Then, a green, efficient and sustainable pavement construction system should be built.