Estate Living Magazine Design for living - Issue 42 June 2019 | Page 43

I N V E S T
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D E V E L O P
Vukheta Mukhari have been hard at work in the laboratory testing
various bio-brick shapes and tensile strengths to produce an
innovative building material. Mukhari is being co-supervised
by Professor Hans Beushausen, also from the civil engineering
department. Beushausen is helping to test the products.
The development is also good news for the environment and global
warming as bio-bricks are made in moulds at room temperature.
Regular bricks are kiln-fired at temperatures around 1,400°C and
produce vast quantities of carbon dioxide.
The strength of the bio-bricks would depend on client needs.
‘If a client wanted a brick stronger than a 40% limestone brick, you
would allow the bacteria to make the solid stronger by “growing” it
for longer,’ said Randall.
‘The longer you allow the little bacteria to make the cement, the
stronger the product is going to be. We can optimise that process.’
Foundational work
The concept of using urea to grow bricks was tested in the United
States some years back using synthetic solutions, but Lambert’s
brick uses real human urine for the first time, with significant
consequences for waste recycling – and upcycling. Her work builds
on foundational research by Jules Henze, a Swiss student who spent
four months working with Randall on this concept in 2017.
The various stages of the making of the world’s first bio-brick
created from human urine in a process not unlike the way
seashells are formed.
‘It’s what I love about research. You build on the foundations of other
work,’ said Randall.
Fertilisers as by-products
In addition, the bio-brick process produces as by-products nitrogen
and potassium, which are important components of commercial
fertilisers.
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