Bioconcrete

Submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for
Chemistry for Engineers
(CHM031)

Jan Paul James T. Estacio

September 9, 2019

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 Concrete has been used for making amazing things throughout the history including

infrastructures, architecture and more. Over 5000 years, the Egyptians were using early forms of

concrete to build pyramids. They mixed mud and straw to form bricks and used lime and gypsum

to make mortars. It was also habituated by the Ancient Romans which helped them to build their

architectural marvels like the Colosseum, and the Pantheon. In 1824, the discovery of Portland

cement by Joseph Aspdin by burning and grounding a mixture of clay and limestone has remained

the dominant cementing agent used in concrete production.

Concretes are traditionally composed of water, aggregate, and cement. Contemporary

concrete preparation involves components called admixtures that helps concrete attain desired

properties. Most modern concrete uses Portland cement that begins with the production of CaO of

limestone that contains mostly calcium carbonate, CaCO3. Lately, the discovery of fly ash partially

replaced Portland cement. It is made by the coal that was burned in power plants. Those minerals

that are present in the coal reacts with oxygen at high temperatures that results in the residue called

fly ash. The composition of fly ash is closely similar to Portland cement with its components being

SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, and CaO.

Nowadays, concrete is the most commonly used construction material globally. Concrete

has a very important contribution on the triple bottom line – environmental, social, and economic

– of sustainable development. Different construction materials like woods are outperformed by

concrete because it won’t burden building owners with constant repair or maintenance costs. It is

durable, safe, and economically friendly because of its most efficient and cost-effective means of

constructing energy-efficient structures.

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 The performance of a concrete is measured by its mechanical properties which includes its

shrinkage and creep, tensile strength, compressive strength, flexural strength, and modulus of

elasticity. Among all those properties, compressive strength is the most important property and it

is generally assumed that an improvement in compressive strength of concrete will improve its

mechanical properties.

Though concrete is one of the most widely used construction materials, it also has a lot of

disadvantages. Concrete is a quasi-brittle material because it undergoes very little deformations

before failure. Aside from this, concrete has low fracture toughness, which is why modern

concretes are supported by a metal to add more stability to the structure. Concrete also has low

tensile strength that means it’s compressive and tensile strength are not the same which results to

low durability of structure. Fresh concrete is liquid, formwork is needed to mold fresh concrete

into shapes and to support its weight. Formwork is very expensive to install and it requires

thorough labor and time. Making concrete requires strict quality control and labor in mixing and

curing of concrete. This is very important for the concrete’s quality. If not, concrete is viable to

poor strength, low durability and performance issues.

Concrete world has been known already over 5000 years ago, especially in the Ancient

Times where ancient people could build stunning structures out of their creativeness, but no matter

how good and strengthened a concrete is, it will eventually crack. But there may be a solution for

this old-age problem. Microbiologist Hendrick Jonkers discovered a self-healing material called

bioconcrete. It is a construction material that is instilled with a bacteria that allows concrete to heal

itself. When a concrete breaks, the bacteria fills up the crack with limestone. By this process, it

could increase the durability of structures and will definitely reduce repair costs.

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 The main mechanism of bioconcrete is achieved by creating a concrete mixture that

contains calcium lactate and bacteria implanted in micro capsules that germinates once the water

reaches the crack. At the moment the bacteria germinate, it produces limestone caused by the

multiplying bacteria. Traditional concrete has a high tendency to form fractures. These fractures

leads to substantial reduction in concrete service life and high replacement costs. But this can be

treated by applying of chemicals and polymers which are the sources of health and environmental

risks, but these are only effective in a short term. Hence, microbiologists and scientists created

bioconcrete, a self-generative material that has a potential on having long-lasting, rapid, and active

crack repair mechanism while also being environmentally friendly.