I know what you’re thinking, the Modcoach has lost his mind! But I haven’t, as Microsoft is already looking at them as possible replacements for concrete and other building materials.
Microsoft says it will champion low-carbon public policy, and support efforts to educate students to remove barriers to using these novel materials, with an “Idea” program (Integrated Design, Engineering, and Architecture) to promote carbon-storing material, delivered through colleges and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund.
A 2020 CLF study funded by Microsoft looked at materials ready for use now, including timber and bamboo. The current study looks at what’s coming down the pipeline, checking which materials are available, how far advanced they are, where they can be used and what the risks are. Here are some front runners.
The report finds that algae has a lot of potential. Bricks can be created by growing algae in a mixture of sand, seawater, and cyanobacteria, says the report: “These ‘living bricks’ are a concrete-like alternative that can be grown on demand.”
Alternatively, bricks can include by-products of algae grown as biofuel – the residues can be turned into “biochar”, a stable solid which stores CO2 for very long periods. Or raw algae can be mixed into more conventional concrete, storing carbon and making it carbon neutral.
Mushroom root structures or “mycelium” have a lot of potential. They can be grown in agricultural residue, and have already been used in materials such as insulating foams, replacing petrochemicals. The report says they can potentially be developed and formed into tubes which can replace some structural steel.
There’s a lot of vegetable residue produced from our agriculture, which can be treated as “biomass” and burnt for energy – or alternatively incorporated into building structures where its carbon is not released into the atmosphere. This could include straw, which could be used in bales or thatch panels, or nutshells included in concrete aggregate.
Bamboo, cork, and hemp can be grown deliberately for structural use.
More prosaically, hard-packed earth slabs could be used instead of the concrete slab floors generally put in new buildings. “Despite centuries of historical precedent, surprisingly little research has been devoted to the idea in a modern context,” the report says.”Among those unaware of modern enhancements, the notion of an earthen floor tends to evoke associations of poverty and dirt, so the option is typically dismissed. For this reason, the making of earthen floors has remained a niche market, one not yet applied to modern buildings or seen as meriting any significant study.”
CLICK HERE to read the entire DCD News article
Related Articles:
- Modular Factories Need To Talk About Innovation’s Problems
- New Hemp Insulation Factory To Open In 2022 To Serve Europe
- The Beauty And Strength Of CLT Beginning To Shine Through In SFHs
Gary Fleisher is the Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source. Email at [email protected]
To begin receiving my twice-weekly free newsletter with offsite and modular construction news, views, polls and videos, simply subscribe to it in the form below.
