Pack some sand in a form, add some very common bacteria (they live in dirt), add some rather common compounds (Calcium Chloride and pee), let sit for a week, and voila’! You have a brick, sans oven.
OK, yeah, it vents ammonia in the process, but if you stack them early, you don’t need mortar.
Still kinda cool.
…reminds me of a time back in the ‘Nam war when I had a pair of cowboy boots made in a local Thai boot shop outside of the gate at U-Tapao.
The fit very well, and I wore them everywhere off duty until the first time I got caught in a monsoon, and then went indoors to dry off…
That’s when I discovered that the primitive practice of tanning hides with animal pee was still used over there…
What, the fact that the dogs kept trying to pee on your boots didn’t clue you in?
😉
These are cool, if not stinky, bricks. But like most “green” things if you explore the energy required for the some ingredients (calcium chloride for example)they don’t seem so green. Sorta like hydrogen from water – sounds great until you figure out that it takes a butt load of electricity to crack the water open and get the hydrogen out.
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That depends on if you are making a lot of extra CaCl2 just to make bricks, or just using existing supplies that exist as a by-product of other industrial processes. Also, if you are making extra, is there a way to produce it that is better for the environment, but just isn’t used due to cost or lack of need (since existing methods are adequate).
But you are right, it is important to check out the energy and pollutant balance sheet before deciding the new way is better. They even admit that in the article, that the release of ammonia can result in Nitrous Oxide, which is a much more powerful greenhouse gas.
That all being said, the coolness factor here is high. I mean, you are using sand, simple bacteria, and common compounds to produce bricks that need no oven, or even mortar. It reminds me of David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers. They had a process by which they would quickly stabilize a section of earth into a concrete like surface by saturating the earth with…something. Then they would land dropships and roll tanks.