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Material researchers create biodegradable concrete casting using sawdust
CategoriesArchitecture

Material researchers create biodegradable concrete casting using sawdust

By Zarkon Group,

A research team at the University of Michigan has created biodegradable formwork out of sawdust in an attempt to mitigate wood waste in the process of laying concrete.

The wood-based material is a result of the BioMatters project by the Digital Architecture Research and Technologies (DART) Lab at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

A 3D-printed column made of sawdust
A research team at the University of Michigan has created a sawdust material for concrete formwork

Led by DART director Mania Aghaei Meibodi along with researchers Muhammad Dayyem Khan and Tharanesh Varadharajan, the team sought to create a material to reuse industrial sawdust in order to lessen the waste created by formwork used in concrete construction.

The team mixed sawdust with biopolymers and additives to create its material, which can be moulded or 3D-printed into various shapes. In order to demonstrate its capabilities, the team used the material to create concrete formwork.

Two people hold a 3D-printed sawdust column
The material can be 3D-printed in order to create structural columns

The team 3D-printed a 1.8-metre structural column, pouring concrete into its centre incrementally. After the concrete was dry, the sawdust formwork was peeled off to reveal the column.

The sawdust material was then saved and recycled by adding water in order to recreate the viscosity level required for 3D printing. Using this process, the team successfully reused the same material over 25 times to create additional columns.

Concrete poured into a a column of sawdust casting
The material is created using a mixture of sawdust and biopolymers

According to the team, 15 billion trees are cut down worldwide per year, which results in three million pounds of sawdust dumped into landfills in the United States.

The sawdust may often be burned as an alternative, which can cause environmental pollution.

A column made of sawdust and bio polymers
It can be recycled by adding water

“It’s like a precious material for me because you’re cutting down a tree,” said researcher Muhammad Dayyem Khan. “I think every particle of that tree should be reused if you’re cutting it down.”

According to DART Lab, formwork contributes to up to 40 per cent of concrete construction expenses and is usually constructed from wood. After its use on construction sites, the formwork is often discarded.

The team also plans to experiment with making larger structures with the material.

“For example, some structures can be printed in a big warehouse and then you just turn them back up,” said Khan. “Just rotate them 90 degrees and you’ve got a bigger structure.”

A concrete column getting sprayed with water
The material is used to mitigate waste produced by the concrete industry

While the BioMatters team initially experimented with the material for formwork, it suggested that the potential reaches beyond just concrete construction.

“It can be anything,” said Khan. “It can be small, decorative items. It can be furniture. It can be your walls, doors, windows.”

The material can also be sanded and stained similar to wood in order to create a smoother finish. The team has yet to explore what woods perform best for the material.

For more projects that utilize sawdust, Designer Oh Geon also used it to create a blocky stool while Mater Design utilised the material for a re-released version of the Conscious Chair. 

Photography courtesy of DART Lab. 

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Researchers discover an enzyme that turns air into electricity
CategoriesSustainable News

Researchers discover an enzyme that turns air into electricity

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Many bacteria use hydrogen from the atmosphere as an energy source in nutrient-poor environments. And now, Australian researchers have demonstrated that an enzyme, called Huc, can turn hydrogen gas into an electrical current.

The research team, led by Dr Rhys Grinter, PhD student Ashleigh Kropp, and Professor Chris Greening from the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute in Melbourne, Australia, isolated the Huc enzyme from a common soil bacterium, Mycobacterium smegmatis. They also found that the enzyme can generate electricity at hydrogen concentrations well below atmospheric levels — as low as 0.00005 per cent of the air we breathe.

To make their discovery, the researchers used advanced microscopy to reveal the enzyme’s structure and electrical pathways, and electrochemistry techniques to prove that the enzyme created electricity even with minimal amounts of hydrogen. Molecular modelling and simulations were also used in the research.

Additional work demonstrated that purified Huc is very stable and can be stored for long periods. In nature, the enzyme helps bacteria to survive in the most extreme environments. This means it can be frozen or heated to 80 degrees Celsius, and still retain its power to generate energy.

The energy-producing bacteria join a host of recent innovations spotted in the Springwise archive that involve microbes. These include cold-loving microbes that can digest plastic and microbes that can produce food-grade proteins.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

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Researchers wirelessly transmit solar power in space
CategoriesSustainable News

Researchers wirelessly transmit solar power in space

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: The ability to collect solar energy here on Earth is often at the mercy of factors such as nightfall, cloud cover, and other adverse weather conditions. But what if solar power could be collected in space and beamed back to Earth? After all, in space, the energy is constantly available without being subjected to the cycles of day and night, seasons, and cloud cover. That is exactly what a team of researchers has done.

Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) has recently demonstrated wireless power transfer from space. In January of this year, the SSPP launched a prototype – dubbed the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD) – aboard a SpaceX rocket, to test key components of the plan to harvest solar power in space and beam the energy back to Earth.

This month, one of these components, the MAPLE (Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment), succeeded in transferring power wirelessly to receivers in space. It used constructive and destructive interference between individual transmitters to focus and direct the energy it beams out – all without any moving parts.

Caltech Professor Ali Hajimiri, who led the team developing MAPLE, explained: “Through the experiments we have run so far, we received confirmation that MAPLE can transmit power successfully to receivers in space. We have also been able to program the array to direct its energy toward Earth, which we detected here at Caltech.”

Solar energy is growing rapidly, but it still accounts for only around four per cent of the world’s energy needs. A number of recent innovations spotted in the Springwise archive hope to improve on this, however, including floating solar plants and fully circular solar PV cells.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

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