Independent Testing Reveals Why Our Porous Concrete Can Help Prevent Stormwater Pollution

AquiPor just received third-party testing results validating both the porosity, water infiltration, and water quality performance of our technology. AquiPor’s surface infiltration rates exceed 10 in/hr, but unlike conventional permeable pavement solutions that just allow water to pass through, AquiPor detains stormwater and releases it a controlled rate at just over 1 in/hr. Paired with our independent filtration testing, AquiPor is doing far more than just moving water out of the way.

Beyond Absorption: A Water Quality Story
Managing stormwater volume is only half the challenge. What that water carries with it matters just as much. Third-party filtration testing showed AquiPor removing over 96% of Total Suspended Solids (TSS) on average, even under worst-case pollutant loading. That's well above the industry benchmark regulators typically look for, and it's a direct result of AquiPor's sub-micron pore structure: rather than relying on large voids that let sediment pass straight through, AquiPor works more like a ceramic water filter, capturing contaminants at the surface where they can be removed.

That distinction matters for maintenance, too. Because sediment stays near the surface instead of migrating deep into the material, standard vacuum sweeping can restore infiltration performance. Testing confirmed this recovery directly, rather than requiring the panel to be replaced or excavated once it starts to clog.

The same testing also targeted a contaminant that's become a major focus for watershed regulators: 6PPD-quinone, a tire-wear byproduct linked to acute toxicity in salmon and other aquatic species. AquiPor removed 81.6% of 6PPD-q in independent testing, marking a significant result as more jurisdictions begin treating this compound as a priority pollutant in stormwater permitting.

A Unique Pore Structure
On the absorption side, independent ASTM C642 testing measured AquiPor's permeable pore space at 18.8%. Just as telling: the gap between water absorbed through simple immersion and water absorbed after boiling (a way of forcing water into every last isolated pocket) was almost nonexistent. In practice, that means nearly all of AquiPor's pore network is open and interconnected, making it a true drainage system.

Translated into real-world terms, the material's rate of water uptake works out to roughly 3-6 times the intensity of a severe, 100-year storm event before it would begin to saturate — a significant safety margin for the kind of extreme rainfall cities are increasingly designing for.

What's easy to miss in the pore space number is what it implies about density, and here's the part that surprises most engineers. AquiPor's wet unit weight came in at 151.1 lb/ft³, essentially identical to conventional concrete's ~150.7 lb/ft³. That's not supposed to happen. Normally, adding almost 19% permeable pore space to a concrete matrix hollows it out so you're trading solid mass for void space, and unit weight drops accordingly. AquiPor doesn't follow that pattern.

The testing showed the material's apparent density - a measure of the solid matrix itself, excluding the permeable pores - actually came in higher than the control mix. In other words, AquiPor isn't achieving its porosity by weakening the skeleton around it, it's building a denser skeleton and threading a finer pore network through it. In other words, AquiPor isn't paying for its permeability with structural compromise the way traditional pervious concrete does.

Why This Combination Matters
Individually, high absorption and high filtration are each useful data points. Together, they're the foundation of AquiPor's regulatory and commercial case: engineers and regulators don't just need pavement that drains fast, they need confidence that what drains through it is clean, and that performance can be reliably maintained over the life of the installation. Independent, third-party validation of both properties backed by recognized ASTM standards is exactly the kind of evidence that permitting bodies and municipal partners are asking for.

As AquiPor continues toward commercial deployment, this testing gives us a data-backed answer to the two questions every stormwater engineer asks first: how much water can it handle, and how clean is the water on the other side.