An Indian researcher at University College London (UCL) has developed a new construction biomaterial that uses living microorganisms to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Prantar Tamuli, a Master’s student in the UCL Bio-Integrated Design programme, is in the early stages of starting a company that will take this biomaterial to industry. Known as cyanobacterial engineered living material or C-ELM, it could dramatically reduce the construction industry’s carbon footprint if mass produced and widely adopted.
It was recently unveiled as part of an art installation at St. Andrews Botanic Garden in Scotland. The material incorporates living cyanobacteria into translucent panels that can be mounted on to the interior walls of buildings. As the microorganisms embedded within these panels grow using photosynthesis, they pull carbon dioxide out of the air, and through a biomineralisation process, affix it to calcium to create calcium carbonate, locking away the carbon.
C-ELM can capture and sequester up to 350g of carbon dioxide, while the same amount of traditional concrete will emit as much as 500g of carbon dioxide. A 150 square metre wall cladded with these C-ELM panels will lock away approximately one tonne of carbon dioxide.
Tamuli, 31, said: “My aim by developing the C-ELM material is to transform the act of constructing our future human habitats from the biggest carbon-emitting activity to the largest carbon-sequestering one.”
The researcher was inspired to develop the material by studying stromatolites – natural stony structures formed over millions of years from sediments trapped by some of the Earth’s most ancient living organisms, algal mats.
Tamuli developed C-ELM under the guidance of research supervisors during his earlier MSc degree in Bio-Integrated Design. Over the Covid-19 lockdown in London, he developed a new process for culturing the cyanobacteria at his home without access to his lab or conventional equipment.
A patent for the C-ELM technology has been filed by UCL’s commercialisation company, UCL Business.
The first such panels were publicly demonstrated at an installation inside the ‘Bioscope’ pavilion in Scotland. Designed by the design collective Studio Biocene, the display showcased low-carbon and low-impact construction methods that mimic a natural environment.
*Info: Studio Biocene