Challenge

When it comes to repairing buildings, the construction industry has so far mainly relied on plastics-modified materials. The mineral construction waste produced after the utilization phase of a building is therefore often contaminated with plastic from these modified mortars and can only be processed at great expense. In order to produce a purely mineral building material for repair purposes, special materials could be used that are deposited by certain microorganisms. This phenomenon has been known for some time as microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) or biocementation. However, although there are many potential areas of application and also a growing number of research projects on biocementation, the principle has hardly been implemented in the construction industry so far: There are still too many open questions both at the level of the microorganisms and their cultivation and at the level of cementation and transfer to the scale of a construction site.

Goals and procedure

The aim of the MicrobialCrete project is the development and introduction of new bio-based building materials for building repairs and other applications in the construction industry. The new building materials are based on special microorganisms that produce solidifying calcium carbonate precipitates. In order to achieve the project goal, the specific requirements for the respective MICP applications will first be compiled together with the industrial and research partners involved. Furthermore, suitable biocementing microorganisms have to be selected for different applications. To this end, high-throughput cultivation processes will be investigated and developed with which the microorganisms can be provided at low cost. Finally, the respective cementation processes for the construction sector will be tested, analysed, and optimized. This will initially be done on a laboratory scale and then under realistic conditions in a pilot project together with the project partners.

Innovations and perspectives

The use of high-throughput cultivation platforms and new analysis technology should enable an acceleration of process and product development. Moreover, the results expected in the MicrobialCrete project already display an application and market potential beyond the repair of buildings, for example for soil stabilization, the immobilization of heavy metals from soils, or the production of building materials. The commercial exploitation of the developments will be carried out directly with the industrial project partners. Due to their high relevance for biocementation as well as bio- and construction technology, the results will be published in various journals and presented at technical conferences.