Kiln-firing conventional bricks uses a lot of energy and generates a lot of CO2 emissions, so a newly discovered method for making bricks from sand, bacteria, calcium chloride and urine could have major environmental benefits. In fact, it’s estimated that if all brick production changed to this method global CO2 emissions would be reduced by 800 millon tonnes per annum.
The new technique – microbial-induced calcite precipitation – uses bacteria to bind grains of sand together through a chain of chemical reactions. By adjusting the mechanism, the bricks can reproduce the strength of a traditional brick, or even marble.
This method follows soon after the launch of clay bricks made from cow dung
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