Ever since the Roman Architectural Revolution, concrete has gone on to become the world's most popular building material. It is being viewed as a form of artificial sedimentary rock and it has a life span of approximately 100 years.
But no matter how carefully mixed, all concrete at some point would eventually crack and under some conditions, those cracks could lead to a building collapse.
The problem is that when there's a crack in a concrete, it allows water to leak in. If this water gets to the steel bars in the concrete, it could lead to corrosion and if they corrode, the structure collapses.
It was this problem, put to Hendrick Jonker in 2006 by a concrete technologist that led to this amazing invention. Making reference to how a bone heals itself through mineralization, Jonker who is a microbiologist, discovered that mixing concrete with limestone-producing bacteria, led to an automatic patching of any cracks.
The bacteria used was bacillus bacteria which can survive up to 200 years without oxygen and food. This bacteria is activated when it comes into contact with water and then using the calcium lactate added to the bacteria capsule as food source, it produces limestone which as a result, seals up the crack.
This invention called "bioconcrete" has earned Jonker a finalist spot for the European Inventor Award 2015.
But no matter how carefully mixed, all concrete at some point would eventually crack and under some conditions, those cracks could lead to a building collapse.
The problem is that when there's a crack in a concrete, it allows water to leak in. If this water gets to the steel bars in the concrete, it could lead to corrosion and if they corrode, the structure collapses.
It was this problem, put to Hendrick Jonker in 2006 by a concrete technologist that led to this amazing invention. Making reference to how a bone heals itself through mineralization, Jonker who is a microbiologist, discovered that mixing concrete with limestone-producing bacteria, led to an automatic patching of any cracks.
The bacteria used was bacillus bacteria which can survive up to 200 years without oxygen and food. This bacteria is activated when it comes into contact with water and then using the calcium lactate added to the bacteria capsule as food source, it produces limestone which as a result, seals up the crack.
This invention called "bioconcrete" has earned Jonker a finalist spot for the European Inventor Award 2015.
I was so much amazed to read the title of this post from you which made me read the whole post with curiosity. Jonker is really a great inventor and he has provided us with such an awesome invention which can save lives and money as well.
ReplyDeleteThe phenomenon of the bacillus bacteria of sealing cracks is amazing. The best part of the qwhole phenomenon is that Jonker succeeded in avoiding corrosion at last.
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