Marble from sand, calcium chloride, urea, and bacillus pasteurii

[TheTimPotterSubscriber]

You may have read an article about halting desertification by cementing together the sand with bacteria and simultaneously creating comfortable living space. Why not make a seastead out of this?

A mixture of sand, calcium chloride, urea and the bacteria bacillus pasteurii will cement together the sand into a rock similar to sandstone or even marble depending on how it is portioned mixed and cured. The sand bricks, in a very early stage of research, are costing about 6 times the cost of bricks. It seems very plausible to get this cost in line with or below that of bricks, not having to fire them in a kiln. It also seems plausible to form hollow bricks that float, or to cement together an entire hollow seastead in one or a few pieces. And the kicker is that we would have a real use for our urine beyond a mediocre fertilizer.

I have been toying around with this idea for a while when I thought the process only yielded a sandstone type material, but the prospect of something with the strength of marble and the cost of bricks is very appealing if it can float.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/could-bacteria-filled-balloons-stop-spread-sahara-magnus-larsson.php

http://archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/2010/07/100707eco-friendly_bricks.asp

[mariuszSubscriber]

What’s the most expensive component in here? What makes it 6 times more expensive then regular bricks?

Mariusz

[elspruSubscriber]

mariusz wrote:

What’s the most expensive component in here? What makes it 6 times more expensive then regular bricks?

Mariusz

Bacillus pasteurii, the microbe itself, must be produced.

If we could find one that could live in saline environments, that would be quite beneficial.

Though perhaps it already lives there,

I’m not sure of it’s specifications.

http://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2009/05/more-adventures-of-bacillus-pasteurii—mending-concrete.html

The chemistry of concrete is alkaline, but fortunately, bacillus pasteurii tolerates this – it simply needs nutrition, space to work, and a little encouragement.

There remain problems of keeping the microbes alive for a long period of time, and retaining sufficient microscopic space in the concrete for them to have room to maneuver, but progress is being made (the addition of clay to the mix provides a safe haven). And, importantly, the more effective this process proves, the less concrete we will have to manufacture and the lower the associated carbon dioxide emissions from making cement.

Coccolithophorids do live in saline envrionements,

they also produce calcium-carbonate,

I’m not sure their effect on sand.

Them or bacillus pasteurii.

We could simply bloom them in the gyre,

then ferrocement boats can go there,

to be “healed” in a rejuvenating gyre.

Though most ferrocement boats,

could go around with a culture of them attached,

as a component of the hullgarden environment.

calm aware desire choice love express intuit move

[TheTimPotterSubscriber]

mariusz wrote:

What’s the most expensive component in here? What makes it 6 times more expensive then regular bricks?

Mariusz

I would say a lack of knowledge and experience.

[TheTimPotterSubscriber]

Elspru,

It looks like Coccolithophore has a shell of calcium chloride but does not excrete it; getting it to bond to sand might be problematic. Luckily there are likely hundreds of microbes which excrete calcium chloride and hopefully a few which are also salt tolerant, or someone may try making some GMOs for us. A salt tolerant species is not necessary though. Also, attempting to create a “healing gyre” would add numerous problematic factors.

[elspruSubscriber]

capistor wrote:

Elspru,

It looks like Coccolithophore has a shell of calcium chloride but does not excrete it; getting it to bond to sand might be problematic. Luckily there are likely hundreds of microbes which excrete calcium chloride and hopefully a few which are also salt tolerant, or someone may try making some GMOs for us. A salt tolerant species is not necessary though.

Wel there are microbes that make coral reefs.

that’s quite well bonded togther limestone.

Also, attempting to create a “healing gyre” would add numerous problematic factors.

There are already blooms of coccolithophorids in the ocean,

calm aware desire choice love express intuit move

[TheTimPotterSubscriber]

Yes, reefs use the similar stuff but how do you get that to bond together in a useful form; and yes it blooms naturally in the ocean but I have never hears anyone say “I have to scrape this layer of coccolithophores off my ship”.

[sda1950Subscriber]

So, is this how the Egyptians made the Piramides?

But this does seem like a good posibility for construction of seasteads.

[elspruSubscriber]

capistor wrote:

Yes, reefs use the similar stuff but how do you get that to bond together in a useful form; and yes it blooms naturally in the ocean but I have never hears anyone say “I have to scrape this layer of coccolithophores off my ship”.

But you’ve probably herd of people scraping coral off their boats.

Harry Pidgeon mentioned it in his book,

he was the first seasteader,

to sail around the world,

single handed.

He made his own boat out of wood,

it was called the Islander,

and lived the rest of his life on it,

though did eventually construct a second boat.

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/lokadin/12-impidgeon1.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Pidgeon

sda1950 wrote:

So, is this how the Egyptians made the Piramides?

Actually it is believed they used Geopolymers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znQk_yBHre4

More on concrete mixes here: http://seasteading.org/interact/forums/engineering/structure-designs/concrete-mix

But this does seem like a good posibility for construction of seasteads.

Self-healing concrete boats be appealing.

calm aware desire choice love express intuit move

[TheTimPotterSubscriber]

I finally had a chat with a microbiologist, specifically a soils/microbial one. He looked over some experiments with me and came to the conclusion that the obstacle is finding the optimal nutrient mixture for the bacteria to grow.

[tusavisionSubscriber]

Compressed Earth Bricks are as cheap as dirt. Any materials strength advantage? Economic Advantage vs. seacrete?

[MorganismSubscriber]

When i first came to this forum, it was originally thought we would pour a cement core, then “grow out” the rest of the structure as a coral body.

What ever happened to that?

Was it dropped because of rusting out the rebar structure before the coral can grow?

[Author]

Posts