Biomason is able to produce its first product , the bioLITH concrete tile , in just 72 hours , much faster than the 28 days for a traditional concrete block or 10 days for a kiln-fired clay brick .
76
exploring the potential of using this process to solidify unstable terrain . Dosier wanted to see whether she could take it out of the ground to create solid , concrete-like structures . So , in 2009 , while still teaching at the American University of Sharjah , she set up a lab in her spare bedroom and began experimenting with the effectiveness of a variety of different calcite precipitating bacteria , placing them into a mold and supplying them with sand , calcium ions and urea — a carbon-based chemical found in urine — to see how fast she could coax them to create calcite bonds that would solidify that sand into a solid form .
“ I was teaching myself chemistry to better understand this process ,” she explains . “ I started with the goal of just trying to grow a brick , because that ’ s the common denominator in architecture , and it gave me an achievable form factor to work with .”
Like all living things , bacteria work according to their own schedule . In the early days , Dosier would stay up for 48 hours during key stages of the process , constantly responding to reminders to “ feed the brick ” with the calcium , urea and other nutrients the bacteria needed to do their work .
Her husband and Biomason co-founder , Michael Dosier , helped develop prototypical forms of the automated monitoring and supply systems that would be needed to scale the process for commercial manufacturing . By 2010 , they were able to make Lego-sized blocks , and in 2012 they founded Biomason to commercialize the process with full-size construction materials .
“ Even before quitting my job and starting Biomason , I was always focused on how this could work at a global scale ,” she says of leaving academia to found the company . “ It had to be a commercially viable process and product . It had to be something that manufacturing partners in multiple locations would be able to work with .”
BUILDING WITH BACTERIA Today , Biomason is able to produce its first product , the bioLITH concrete tile , in just 72 hours . That compares to around 28 days for a traditional concrete block or 10 days for a kiln-fired clay brick .
The bioLITH tile is also stronger than traditional concrete and has among the lowest carbon footprint of any construction material on the market . The company estimates that for each
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BIOMASON