Lada 🏡 Prkic

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What do you get when mixing blood, eggs, fat, sand...? Concrete!

What do you get when mixing blood, eggs, fat, sand...? Concrete!

Concrete, in its basic form, is a mixture of cement, aggregate, and water. Due to its strength and ability to adapt to almost any shape, concrete has become one of the most used building materials. The world's dependence on this material just keeps growing. 

Concrete has become the measure of a nation's economic development. Having become the concrete superpower and home to the world's largest concrete structures, China is the best example of how one building material can transform a culture. 

On the other hand, concrete is an enormous contributor to global warming. That's a topic for another article.

The history of concrete goes back even to the Neolithic. The first concrete-like structures are found in the Middle East (Syria and Jordan) and Balkan Peninsula (Lepenski Vir). Lepenski Vir was the first planned settlement in Europe, with numerous buildings located on the banks of the Danube River in Serbia. Buildings date from 9500 BC to 6000 BC and have unique trapezoidal shapes, previously unknown in human settlements. The material used for the flooring structures was the red local limestone clay mixed with animal dung and ash, which hardened like concrete. 

Trapezoidal flooring structure of a residential house, exhibited in the Museum of Lepenski Vir ( Wikipedia) 

*Trapezoidal flooring structure of a residential house, exhibited in the Museum of Lepenski Vir (Image Source: Wikipedia) 

The first who used concrete in the way we do today were the Romans. They mastered concrete. Even sea walls and harbour piers have withstood the sea for two millennia and counting, making the Roman harbour concrete the most durable building material in human history. Romans made concrete of volcanic ash, lime and fragments of volcanic rock. The reactions between seawater and volcanic material led to the growth of interlocking crystals that kept growing over the years, reinforcing the concrete. In contrast, modern concrete erodes when exposed to seawater. 

As admixtures, Romans used animal fat, milk and blood. 

Animal products have been used to impregnate porous building materials since time immemorial. Substances such as hoof collagen, milk casein, and animal blood have been widely used to make glue for thousands of years.

Traditional sources and historical records tell us egg whites were used as ingredients for mortars to bind building materials of many churches, mosques, and other architectural structures. Egg whites, besides other edible additives such as rice, sugar, oil, and blood, were also used in ancient Chinese buildings. 

Animal blood has a long history of use for construction both in Europe and Asia. Builders of the Great Wall of China used pig blood to improve the consistency and durability of their mortar. 

A section of the Great Wall contains mortar made with blood - A section of the Great Wall, in Yanqing County, contains mortar made with blood (Photo: OLEKSANDR RUPETA/NURPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES) 

*A section of the Great Wall, in Yanqing County, contains mortar made with blood (Photo: OLEKSANDR RUPETA/NURPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES)           

Blood was often used for mortars in the Middle Ages and later in the18th and 19th centuries. Thomas Telford, a Scottish civil engineer, added oxblood to the lime mortar for the masonry structure of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct as a water-repelling additive. The recipe was similar to Roman mortar.

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales (UK) - a feat of civil engineering of the Industrial Revolution, completed in 1805 (Image Source: Wikipedia)

*Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales (UK) - a feat of civil engineering of the Industrial Revolution, completed in 1805 (Image Source: Wikipedia)

Romans added blood to their mortar and concrete to increase their properties. Haemoglobin is perhaps one of the reasons for the durability of Roman structures that still exist today. Although there are many references that the Roman engineers added blood to concrete, it is still unknown how they realised that adding blood improves concrete and what amount to add. 

It was in the 20th century that scientists discovered how adding blood increases frost resistance of concrete (blood stimulates the formation of small air voids in hardened concrete that protect from freezing-thawing damages), but also that the addition of blood reduces the strength of concrete.

Thus, the amount of blood would need to be carefully controlled and added to concrete in small amounts. 

Some studies show that adding 5% oxblood to the fresh mix of concrete (related to the amount of mixing water) can reduce chloride penetration into concrete, which leads to corrosion of the steel reinforcement. Blood, therefore, prolongs the service life of reinforced concrete structures in aggressive (marine) environments. But due to the substantial amount of water contained, blood reduces the strength of concrete. It can be partly compensated by a reduction of the water-cement ratio.

In recent times, there have been many ideas to use animal blood as the by-product of abattoirs in the construction industry. For some, even patents were granted, such as the patent from 1980 for making lightweight concrete by using whole blood powder as an air-entraining colloid. 

In short, air entrainment helps protect concrete from freezing-thawing damages caused by water within the capillary system that freezes and expands. The volume of ice is about 9% greater than the volume of water. Freeze-thaw cycles cause tensile forces which crack concrete or cause surface scaling. 

Air-entraining agents (added during the mixing of fresh concrete) create microscopic small, uniformly distributed air voids in the hardened concrete. These air spaces relieve the internal pressure on the concrete due to the growth of ice crystals by providing tiny chambers for water to expand into when it freezes. Agents that produce air voids that are smaller and more closely spaced are better for freeze-thaw durability.  

Air entrained concrete

A decade ago, architect Jack Munro developed a process of using cattle blood as a binding ingredient in making bricks. The mixture of blood, water, sand, and some antibacterial agents, poured into a form and baked at 70° C for an hour, resulted in bricks suitable for erecting simple buildings. Besides being waterproof, the bricks were strong enough to be used as a building material, although not as strong as the traditional ones. Primarily intended for buildings in desert communities such as Egypt that already rely on mud bricks for constructing homes and other buildings, the experiment did not come to life. 

Munro's crimson bricks of cattle blood (Photo: MUNRO STUDIO)

*Munro's crimson bricks of cattle blood (Photo: MUNRO STUDIO)

 

The possibility of applications of blood in the construction industry

We live in a world of meat-eaters and consume meat more than ever. Over the past 50 years, global meat production has almost quadrupled and demand for meat is going to rise, according to FAO. 

Slaughterhouse blood represents the most problematic by-product of the meat industry. Approximately a third of the collected amount is processed into food additives. Most people are unaware of the fact that animal blood proteins and blood plasma are both used as a binder in meat products, as egg replacers, as well as fat replacers. Blood plasma is widely used because of its emulsifying, gelling, and foaming properties. Slaughterhouse blood and its derived products are used for animal feed, pet food, and fertilizer. It is also used in both animal and human medicines. 

The rest of the blood is discarded as waste - and thrown away. The amount of waste is huge, resulting in a serious environmental pollution problem.

Therefore the addition of blood to concrete could be economical and at the same time an ecological measure to upcycle a product that would otherwise go to waste. 

While in many cultures blood is consumed in tofu, sauces, soups, sausages, and even pasta and pastries, there is still a taboo about living in houses built with blood. For now, there are applications of using blood in lime mortars for the restoration of historic buildings. Other construction ideas and inventions, still, remained unclaimed.

Besides adding blood to concrete as a powerful air-entraining agent, there's one new technology that has the potential to transform the concrete industry.

Self-healing concrete with blood enzyme

A recent groundbreaking discovery is self-healing concrete that uses an enzyme found in red blood cells to give concrete regenerative powers. The carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzyme is a natural enzyme that assists cells in the rapid conversion of CO2 and is found in all mammalian tissues (humans are also mammals), plants, algae, and bacteria. The enzyme added to concrete before mixing and pouring acts as a catalyst. When small cracks form in hardened concrete, carbonic anhydrase reacts with atmospheric CO2 and triggers the growth of calcium carbonate crystals. The crystals are similar to concrete in structure and strength and can fill tiny millimetre cracks - within a day - before they grow to larger cracks and cause structural problems. 

This enzyme-based method - developed after five years of research by researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute - can be also used to repair and strengthen the existing concrete structures. When the calcium-enzyme solution is applied along the crack region and then sprayed with ultra-pure CO2 gas to speed up the process, it drives the chemical reaction and heals the cracks.

Here's a video of a lab demo of concrete healing itself when a solution of CA enzyme, water and calcium is applied to cracks. It looks like magic.

 

 

Researchers predict that self-healing concrete could extend the life of a structure up to additional 80 years, even under extreme conditions. Reducing the need for costly repairs or replacements of concrete structures will have a huge environmental impact, along with the potential for use in carbon dioxide capturing processes because the self-healing process consumes CO2. 

Bovine blood collected in abattoirs could be a viable source for CA enzyme extraction.

The further step is up to the construction industry to license and use this new enzyme method. It takes time to develop and set new regulations and standards for enzymatic self-repairing concrete.

    

If not on Earth, perhaps on Mars …

NASA's goal is to land humans on Mars by 2037. Researchers from the  University of Manchester invented a new form of ‘concrete’ made of human blood. They already made the first batch of this concrete combining simulated Mars soil and a common blood protein - albumin. 

This concrete-like biocomposite material is called AstroCrete and could be produced from extra-terrestrial dust along with human albumin and the incorporation of urea, which could be extracted from the urine, sweat, or tears of astronauts. Albumin could be obtained from astronauts in vivo through blood plasma extraction — a procedure similar to blood donation. The incorporation of urea can increase the compressive strengths of such concrete up to 40 MPa. In comparison, the compressive strength of standard terrestrial concrete is typically 20–37 MPa.

Also, AstroCrete has the potential to be 3D-printed. 

3D printed Mars bio-composite - the colour is not very visually appealing (University of Manchester) 

*3D printed Mars bio-composite - the colour is not very visually appealing (University of Manchester) 

It is really exciting to see that even space-age solutions are inspired by technology widely utilised for millennia. 

AstroCrete or similar biocomposites could have a significant role in establishing an early Martian colony. I am looking forward to future technological advancements in extraterrestrial construction methods. 2037 is not that far.  

***

Over millennia, concrete has passed through continuous development and still does. Bio-based concrete with self-healing properties is the next big thing in sustainable construction. It could be a solution for the construction industry to minimize its colossal carbon footprint. 

Hardly any material can replace concrete. It will continue to shape our built environment in the future, but the way concrete is made and used will change.

Previously mentioned innovative solutions are only a few among numerous potential ones. This humble building material made of aggregate (sand, gravel, or crushed rock), water, and cement, became an increasingly complex mixture aiming to meet its sustainable future. 

Adding waste materials such as abattoir blood to the mixture will reduce the demand for natural resources. But much more is needed to make concrete environmentally friendly.

The Global Cement and Concrete Association has promised carbon-neutral concrete by 2050.

Scientists find ways to make concrete long-term sustainable. Every such innovation is a step forward in shaping our ‘concrete’ world without costing the planet. 

Komentari

Fay Vietmeier

prije 1 godinu #21

💛#22

@Lada 🏡 Prkic 

“Iron-sharpens-iron” dear Lada .. warm welcome 💛😇

Lada 🏡 Prkic

prije 1 godinu #20

Lada 🏡 Prkic

prije 1 godinu #19

Neil Smith

prije 1 godinu #18

Bloody hell! I would never have guessed that there was so much of a connection between concrete and blood. Every day is a school day. Thanks.

Lada 🏡 Prkic

prije 1 godinu #17

Lada 🏡 Prkic

prije 1 godinu #16

Fay Vietmeier

prije 1 godinu #15

💛💛@Lada 🏡 Prkic 

A most fascinating post Lada - thanks for all your research & sharing 💛 .. I'll never look at concrete the same way.  

I also was made to wonder how blood was sacrificed in other ways - as construction processes throughout human history were often very dangerous   

Self-healing concrete with blood enzyme .. I'm glad you included that video !!  

I wish I had the background to understand the chemistry 

 

2037 will be here before we blink .. “space age solutions” 

AstroCrete  - the potential for 3-D printing - “technological advancements in extraterrestrial construction methods”

 

@Ken Boddie  .. dear “Bard” that thought passed through my mind as well 

"add some blood and bone in the mix .. provide adversaries with ‘concrete overcoats’  😂🤣😂

 

 


 

Ken Boddie

prije 1 godinu #14

Lada 🏡 Prkic

prije 1 godinu #13

Lada 🏡 Prkic

prije 1 godinu #12

Lada 🏡 Prkic

prije 1 godinu #11

Debasish Majumder

prije 1 godinu #10

Great buzz @Lada 🏡 Prkic ! enjoyed read and shared. thank you for the buzz.

Ken Boddie

prije 1 godinu #9

Great piece of research, Lada. Roman concrete is, of course, relatively famous within the profession, and blood in the Great Wall mortar also, but I must admit that Astrocrete has escaped my attention. It would be nice, however, in such magnetic, attention-drawing posts to include a few references or links for info hoarders like me to explore deeper. Nevertheless, well worth the lengthy presentation, with perhaps the take-away conclusion being that we engineers have been successfully innovative since the dawn of both homo sapiens and homo non-sapiens. 

BTW, just wondering if the need to add some blood and bone in the mix is a modern day Roman alterior motive for the Mafioso to occasionally provide their adversaries with ‘concrete overcoats’?  😂🤣😂

Pascal Derrien

prije 1 godinu #8

that would normally not be a topic I would dig (;-)) but what a fascinating write up 

Lada 🏡 Prkic

prije 1 godinu #7

Lada 🏡 Prkic

prije 1 godinu #6

Lada 🏡 Prkic

prije 1 godinu #5

Jerry, say hello to your daughter. :) Thank you; I appreciate your kind words. I haven't written about civil engineering topics in a long time. 

Lada 🏡 Prkic

prije 1 godinu #4

Phil Friedman

prije 1 godinu #3

Wow, @Lada 🏡 Prkic! What a great article. To someone who dabbled in the construction of several ferrocement boats in the late 1060s and early 1970s, the notion of a self-healing concrete matrix would have been a game-changer. May I share your piece, with full credit to you, of course, with my newsletter and other internet boatbuilding readers on LinkedIn and Facebook? I hope you are well and staying safe. Cheers!

Jerry Fletcher

prije 1 godinu #2

Lada, Wow! I'm sending a copy to my daughter. I was telling her the other day how stunning your posts are. Thank you. 

Greg Rolfe

prije 1 godinu #1

@Lada 🏡 Prkic, thank you for the article. it was rather informative.  I studied concrete while I was working as an engineer but never heard of this particular additive.  Interesting indeed!

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