Microbes against cracks in concrete – on sale soon
Self-healing biobetone has been created in the Netherlands
Dutch inventors have developed self-healing concrete, cracks in which are automatically overgrown thanks to special bacteria. The new technology, already brought to the stage of practical implementation in 2015, is reported by the Daily Mail (No more potholes! 'Living' concrete heals itself using BACTERIA when it comes into contact with water).
Ordinary reinforced concrete eventually becomes covered with microcracks, into which moisture penetrates. After several cycles of freezing and thawing, the fractures expand, water reaches the reinforcement, starting the process of its corrosion. Rust takes up more space than the original metal, and as a result, concrete begins to crack and delaminate.
Scientists have proposed adding bacteria of the genus Bacillus mixed with calcium lactic acid to reinforced concrete at the stage of its production, which live in rocks near active volcanoes and alkaline lakes. When water enters the cracks, it awakens bacteria from hibernation, and they begin to absorb salt, releasing calcite (one of the forms of calcium carbonate), the deposits of which fill the cracks formed in the concrete.
A similar project was presented back in 2010 by a group of students from Newcastle University, but they did not get to the implementation – perhaps due to the fact that they used not natural, but genetically modified bacteria and, despite the "self-destruction gene" built into them, which does not allow GM microbes to live anywhere, in addition to concrete, the developers ran into a wall stronger than concrete: bureaucratic – VM.
In addition, the new technology can be used to repair already built buildings and roads: spray liquid with bacteria over cracks.
Inventor Hendrik Marius Jonkers from Delft University of Technology plans to launch the production of such a spray by the end of 2015, and concrete with bacteria – by 2016. "Biobetone is ideal for buildings to which people have limited access – highways, underground structures, drilling rigs. Bacteria are perfectly adapted to the high alkalinity of the environment and can hibernate inside concrete for many years," the scientist noted.
Yonkers' development has reached the final of the 2015 European Inventor Award.
Samples of self-healing concrete. Photo from the European Patent Office (EPO) press release
“Bio-concrete” set to revolutionise the building industry: Dutch inventor of self-healing
concrete named finalist for European Inventor Award – VM.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru19.05.2015