Buildings made from Vegetables? By John Steele

     Having worked in the building trade, I was amazed to read that vegetables could soon be making buildings stronger. But how?
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-08-14-will-future-buildings-be-made-from-vegetables.html
  https://www.alphagalileo.org/en-gb/Item-Display/ItemId/165003?returnurl=https://www.alphagalileo.org/en-gb/Item-Display/ItemId/165003

“It is well known that vegetables are good for people but they could also be the key to making stronger and greener buildings. Engineers at Lancaster University are working with industrial partners at Cellucomp Ltd UK to research how concrete mixtures can be strengthened and made more environmentally friendly by adding ‘nano platelets’ extracted from the fibres of root vegetables. The work, which is being supported with £195,000 by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 funding, will build on findings from early tests that have demonstrated that concrete mixtures including nano platelets from sugar beet or carrot significantly improve the mechanical properties of concrete. These vegetable-composite concretes were also found to out-perform all commercially available cement additives, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes and at a much lower cost. The root vegetable nano platelets work both to increase the amount of calcium silicate hydrate – the main substance that controls the performance of concrete, and stop any cracks that appear in the concrete.

By increasing the performance of concrete, smaller quantities are needed in construction. The construction industry is urgently seeking ways in which to curb its carbon emissions. The production of ordinary Portland cement, one of the main ingredients for concrete, is very carbon intensive – its production accounts for eight per cent of total global CO2 emissions. This is forecast to double in the next 30 years due to rising demand. The proof-of-concept studies showed that adding the root vegetable nano platelets resulted in a saving of 40kg of ordinary Portland cement per cubic metre of concrete – which gives a saving of 40kg of CO2 for the same volume. This is because the greater strength of the root vegetable mixture means smaller sections of concrete are required in buildings.”

     It is probably not the right way, to throw your vegetable scraps into the next batch of concrete you make, but a time will surely come when cement will be green and friendly and as cuddly as me.