Botanical cement with desert sand for construction
Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the University of Tokyo have made a prototype of botanical cement made of desert sand and plant-based additives in hopes that it can be used to build houses and roads. Once mixed, the team adds tiny pieces of wood together and presses them all with heat to produce the cement. The researchers have already tried other ways to create the botanical cement with desert sand by testing different temperatures, the force used to press the materials, and what types of sand were used.
The one they’ve developed is sturdy enough that it can be used to make paving stones for pavements and walkways, the researchers say. At the moment, the researchers are still testing if it’s possible to use the material for construction, but in case it is suitable, the team believes it can reduce the need to crush mountains and collect river sand, which in turn can reduce the harmful impact on the environment. For them, it’s also a way to ‘exploit’ sand resources that are currently abundant and pose challenges in the desert areas.
image by Hassan Ouajbir, via Pexels
plant-based additives and wood make up the material
It’s not the first time that researchers have explored using desert sand to produce (botanical) cement. It’s just that this kind of sand is so fine-grained that it doesn’t bind so well in concrete. In that case, the concrete can collapse or be powdered again. By mixing the desert sand with plant-based additives as well as tiny wood pieces, the university researchers are able to produce and test a prototype that can result in a refreshed construction material. Concrete is a widely used building material next to water, and the team says that more than four billion tonnes of cement are produced every year around the world, amounting to eight percent of the world’s carbon emissions.
Part of the concrete’s ingredients is sand, but not just any. It has to be the right size and shape, so in this case, rock is crushed into gravel and sand, and river sand is excavated on a large scale, resulting in major environmental impacts and an increased scarcity of suitable sand. The researchers hope to avoid this harmful practice by offering a potential solution in the form of botanical cement while still using desert sand. The team sees that sourcing the desert sand must come from where it is already found so that shipping it around the world doesn’t become the new environmental culprit. At the moment, they’ve published their study and are running tests to see if the botanical cement with desert sand can be used indoors and, later on, for constructing houses and roads.
image by Oksana Ti, via Pexels
image courtesy of Norwegian University of Science and Technology, via Colourbox
image by Boris Ulzibat, via Pexels
image by Denys Gromov, via Pexels
project info:
name: Botanical sandcrete: An environment-friendly alternative way to the mass utilization of fine (desert) sand
institutions: Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), University of Tokyo | @ntnu, @utokyo_pr
researchers: Ren Wei, Tsukamoto Atsuki, Guomin Ji, Yuya Sakai
study: here
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