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Tag: recycled concrete

4 Stepping Stones to Sustainability for New Construction Firms

Posted on by dishanth
4 Stepping Stones to Sustainability for New Construction Firms

4 Stepping Stones to Sustainability for New Construction Firms

The construction industry has a well-deserved reputation for being an environmental polluter. It has gotten away with ungreen practices because the other sectors are just as dirty, if not more. However, climate change has made the world less tolerant of environmentally unsound organizations. Governments have joined the sustainability movement, so the writing is on the wall for maladaptive enterprises.

Many firms are slow to adopt greener practices, but the influx of startups can accelerate the sector’s sustainability transformation. New design-build firms, general contracting businesses, and subcontractors are better positioned to embrace eco-friendly initiatives.

The corporate culture is still a blank canvas, so start fresh with these four tips.

 

  1. Go Digital

Technological adoption and sustainability go hand in hand. Outdated methods and crude tools limit your ability to overcome your blind spots and find opportunities to operate more sustainably. Investing in digital technologies is necessary to address your pain points and streamline your processes.

Which innovations should you prioritize? There are numerous excellent candidates:

  • Mobile devices and messaging tools can harness cloud computing’s potential to promote remote resource access and foster interconnectedness. The interplay between these technologies will break down the usual communication barriers, making it easy to keep everybody on the same page.
  • Computer-aided design, building information modeling, and construction management programs streamline processes. They have unique functions but digitize data so you can review information more granularly. Analytics programs can reveal insights to solve problems that harm the environment, like surplus inventory and rework.
  • LiDAR and camera-equipped drones, wearable Internet of Things devices, and telematics systems can collect data on almost anything. They can help you precisely and accurately scan the landscape to minimize disturbance on existing ecosystems, quantify worker performance to identify and correct wasteful habits and keep tabs on equipment usage.
  • Bots automate tedious tasks, allowing you to conduct construction work more efficiently. Robotic arm 3D printers and bricklayers can help you complete projects faster and decrease material waste.

Construction has been slow to innovate primarily due to employee hesitance. Feeling intimidated by innovative solutions and receiving inadequate technical support are some of the usual baggage crews carry. Budget for training and continuous learning, as technologically savvy workers feel comfortable with innovations and can maximize their tools to run your business more sustainably.

 

  1. Be Circular

Circularity promotes using renewable, reclaimed or recycled materials, reusing or repurposing items, recovering salvageable materials, and designing structures with easily recoverable components. Such practices aim to leave the remaining virgin resources untouched because logging, mining and quarrying have considerable environmental consequences. These extraction methods destroy natural habitats, displace wildlife, eradicate biodiversity, pollute soil, water and air, and reduce natural carbon sinks.

Considering the planet’s finite resources, the construction industry has to switch from the linear to the circular model sooner rather than later. Otherwise, the sector will face crippling supply chain disruptions, which can result in project delays and loss of profits. How do you join the circular economy?

  • Buy reclaimed, recycled and repurposed construction supplies: Try doing so whenever you can to help conserve virgin resources.
  • Choose vendors carefully: Circular suppliers engaging in unethical practices practice greenwashing, not sustainability. Exercise due diligence to ensure your supply chain partners are as green as they claim to be to avoid enriching environmentally damaging businesses.
  • Select used equipment over new products: Purchasing pre-owned tools, machines and vehicles is sustainable because they’re already around. Ordering brand-new assets incentivizes manufacturers to build more products, potentially using newly extracted raw materials. Plus, pre-owned models save you money because used items cost less, less downtime is necessary for training and replacement parts are usually cheaper.
  • Put a premium on prefabrication: Prefab construction minimizes waste since it’s easier to control material usage when building components off-site in a factory-controlled environment. More importantly, construction modules lend themselves to deconstruction, simplifying dismantling and material recovery for reuse or resale.

 

  1. Emit Less

Decarbonize your operations at every turn. Switching from diesel to electric is one of the best ways to do so. Powering your assets with nothing but electricity eliminates air and noise pollution on-site.

Running on electricity doesn’t automatically translate to fewer greenhouse gas emissions. In 2023, fossil fuels produced 60% of the electricity generated in the United States. The nation’s power mix will be cleaner once green hydrogen becomes ubiquitous, so operating electric construction assets will be even more eco-friendly in the future.

If upgrading to electric equipment doesn’t make sense for you, adopting renewable diesel is the next best thing. This alternative fuel is chemically identical to fossil-derived diesel, so you can use it on your existing assets without modifying anything. Renewable diesel releases fewer climate change gasses because it burns cleaner.

Furthermore, localize your supply chain. Ships are responsible for 3% of all greenhouse gasses linked to human activities globally. Ordering materials from overseas will increase your construction firm’s carbon footprint, but transporting domestically sourced materials involves fewer emissions. It’s also logically simple because they cover less ground and avoid Customs and Border Protection. As a bonus, you enjoy shorter lead times.

Make it a mission to have a lean mindset. A lean construction philosophy aims to cut waste at every chance, minimizing idle time and redundant processes that drive up greenhouse gas emissions.

 

  1. Look Ahead

Sustainability isn’t an objective — it’s a purpose. It’s a never-ending pursuit, so always seek new ways to run your construction firm in an environmentally friendly way.

Lack of knowledge about emerging technologies is among the limiting factors in innovating. Curiosity is the antidote to ignorance, so keep up with the hottest trends in eco-building. Transparent wood, superabsorbent hydrogel, luminescent cement, 3D-printed soil structures, biodegradable polyurethane foam and plasma rock are some of the most promising innovations.

Most promising eco-friendly construction solutions take a lot of development before becoming ready for sale — and only a few ultimately gain mainstream acceptance. Although many ingenious ideas don’t pan out, be ahead of the curve. Use them to inspire regenerative and climate-resilient building designs that positively impact the environment for decades.

 

Take Small Steps Toward Sustainability

These four strategies only scratch the surface of what you do to be a force for good in the sector’s sustainability transformation. Strive to be more eco-friendly as you grow and you’ll establish a solid reputation as a green construction business.

 

 

 

 

Source   Happy Eco News 

Table Salt in Plastic Recycling

Posted on by dishanth
Table Salt in Plastic Recycling

As far back as 6050 BC, salt has been used for various purposes, including religious offerings and valuable trades. The word “salary” was derived from the word salt because it was highly valued, and production was legally restricted in ancient times, so it was historically used as a method of trade and currency.

Table salt is an important and inexpensive kitchen staple today and is used for various uses, including seasoning, food preservation, food texture, cleaning,  and boiling water. We even use salt in healthcare (such as for cleaning wounds) and for deicing roads and sidewalks. But now table salt is entering a new domain: plastic recycling.

Researchers from Michigan State University are proving that salt in plastic recycling has the properties to outperform much more expensive materials that are being explored to help recycle plastics. The MSU team uses pyrolysis to break down the plastics into a mixture of simpler carbon-based compounds, including gas, liquid oil, and solid wax. Pyrolysis is the process of heating an organic material in the absence of oxygen.

One of the challenges of plastic recycling has always been an undesirable wax byproduct, which accounts for over half of the pyrolysis output. The wax obtained from the pyrolysis of waste plastic is generally regarded as a low-value product that requires further treatment in a refinery for it to be considered valuable as chemicals, diesel, petroleum, and gasoline.

Salt in plastic recycling is used as a catalyst to pyrolyze polyolefins (the family of thermoplastics that include polyethylene and polypropylene); the MSU team produced mostly liquid oil that contains hydrocarbon molecules similar to what is found in diesel fuel, which is not suitable for producing new polymers. There was no undesirable wax; over 50% is generally seen when platinum on carbon or aluminum is used as a catalyst. In this experiment, the result was 86% liquid form and 14% gas.

Using salt in plastic recycling as a catalyst also means the salt can be reused simply by washing the liquid oil with water. The team also found that table salt helped in the pyrolisis of metalized plastic films commonly used in food packaging, such as potato chip bags, which currently aren’t being recycled.

Because table salt is relatively inexpensive, using salt in plastic recycling could drastically reduce the costs associated with these processes. The researchers found that table salt can offer a transformative approach toward an inexpensive (4 cents per kg) and efficient pyrolysis methodology for converting mixed plastics waste to useful hydrocarbon products.

The use of table salt in plastic recycling is a relatively new phenomenon. Traditionally, salt has not been used directly in plastic recycling processes. It has been used indirectly in cleaning and preparing plastic items. It can be used as an abrasive agent to help scrub any residues. It is also used to scrub off adhesive labels from plastic containers.

In recycling facilities, electrostatic separation processes are used to separate different types of plastic based on their electrostatic charges. Salt can affect the conductivity of plastics and help in the separation. Furthermore, the traditional recycling process typically involves mechanical methods such as shredding, melting, and extruding rather than chemical reactions that involve salt. This study can drastically change the way plastic is recycled.

The salt in plastic recycling study from Michigan State University is still in its initial phases. Still, if it catches on, it could be an important movement towards how we recycle plastics and can result in more plastic being recycled and repurposed. It’s fascinating that something so simple and abundant, like table salt, can be used to help tackle one of the world’s most pressing issues.

 

 

 

 

Source   Happy Eco News

Technology Helps City Air Purifiers Run at Scale

Posted on by dishanth
Technology Helps City Air Purifiers Run at Scale

As urban air pollution increases globally, cities of all sizes are getting creative with technologies to literally filter out the smog. In 2017, China unveiled what it dubbed the “world’s biggest city air purifier” – a nearly 100-meter tall tower in northern China designed to reduce air pollution. While its effectiveness has limits, the towering structure demonstrates the growing interest in large-scale air filtration. Beyond this eye-catching prototype, cities worldwide are testing various innovative technologies to clean their skies.

In Xian in Shaanxi province, residents breathing some of China’s most polluted air are getting a reprieve thanks to their new neighbor – a 60-meter tall city air purifier tower. The structure’s interior has multiple filtration layers to catch particulates as air passes. An interior glass enclosure helps contain airflow so polluted air can fully pass through the system.

Since becoming operational in 2017, the city air purifier tower has noticeably cut harmful PM2.5 particles in the surrounding 2.6 square mile area. Cities like Xian regularly suffer from winter smog, blanketing entire regions. While not eliminating pollution, the tower provides cleaner air in its immediate vicinity.

The concept behind the city air purifier is similar to industrial scrubbers cleaning factory exhaust. Scaling up the technology, its designers hope such towers could eventually clean the air across entire cities. Of course, a limitation is that people must be close to the towers to benefit. And the structures are costly to build and operate. Still, China’s prototype tower has spurred interest in exploring larger-scale air filtration to supplement other anti-pollution measures.

While China goes big, other pollution fighters use buildings as filters. High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtering systems installed in central air ventilation systems are increasingly common. HEPA filters use densely packed fibers to catch over 99% of particulates, pollen, and other pollutants. Similar city air purifiers at the street level are also possible. Smog halting benches designed in Paris contain a HEPA filter, sucking in air as pedestrians sit.

Living walls of plants built onto building exteriors also naturally filter gases. One study found adding 172 square feet of plants per person in London could remove all PM10 particulates. Mosses are especially effective pollutant absorbers.

Specialized building materials also react with and neutralize air pollutants when exposed to light. Concrete can be coated with titanium dioxide, which oxidizes nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds into safer compounds. Hydrophilic coatings help droplets absorb particulates.

Researchers are working on incorporating similar photocatalysts into road asphalt. These chemically treated roads could reduce tons of air pollutants daily if widely adopted.

Green algae may also hold the potential for clean city air through bioreactors. Experimental units in Hamburg use circulated airflow to filter exhaust fumes through an algae facade. The algae neutralize airborne pollutants while multiplying and producing biomass that can be harvested for biofuels.

What works in lab prototype city air purifiers, however, often proves challenging to execute citywide. Costs, aesthetics, and maintenance frequently impede adoption. Visible additions like green roofs require public acceptance. Passive approaches like photocatalytic paints, while hidden, need reapplication over time.

Scaling across metro areas also poses hurdles. Shanghai officials planned a network of small purifier towers across the city, but only a few ever materialized. Even proven concepts like roof gardens struggle to spread, as few developers want to trade rentable space for plants.

While technical solutions can filter pollution already in the air, reducing emissions at the source remains vital. You can’t plant your way out of bad air.

Despite obstacles, experts forecast continued innovation and cost reductions, improving feasibility. Market growth also brings economies of scale. Global green walls are forecast to be a $7.5 billion industry by 2030. Modular green facades and roofs can now be delivered as easy-install kits.

Policy measures like subsidies, tax incentives, and mandates will likely be needed, however, to spur mass adoption. Many cities now require mechanically ventilated buildings to install city air purifiers through filtration. While these are intended to protect building occupants from pathogens such as coronavirus, they also have the net effect of reducing particulate and other toxins from the air. Building codes could similarly require passive air-cleaning coatings and surfaces.

Though major pollution sources like autos require parallel efforts, creative technologies can help cities breathe easier. China’s massive air purifier may be just the start of a cleaner air movement. The scale of the air pollution crisis demands big, visible solutions to jolt public awareness.

While towering city air purifiers or algae bioreactors may capture headlines, addressing urban air pollution requires a multi-faceted approach. Technical fixes can target existing pollution, but cities must also prevent pollution at the source by transitioning to cleaner energy, transport, and waste systems.

Public awareness and policy measures are equally vital to drive large-scale adoption of innovative city air purifier concepts. Financial incentives, tax breaks, and inclusion in building codes could help technologies like photocatalytic coatings and surfaces become mainstream. Grassroots activism also plays a crucial role in keeping air quality high on urban agendas.

Though critical, bold engineering feats like China’s massive city air purifier tower should be viewed as supplementary elements of long-term solutions rather than silver bullet fixes. As much as cities need breathable air, those relying on singular grand gestures risk short-changing public health. Lasting solutions require a patient, systematic transition toward deeper sustainability.

Still, visionary projects like China’s offer hope by viscerally demonstrating the scale of what’s possible. Initial results and statements suggested the tower can produce over 10 million cubic meters of clean air daily. If we were to use this figure as a rough estimate, it would translate to about 3.65 trillion cubic meters of clean air annually, having a positive effect on the health of those living near it.

When paired with holistic strategies to address transport, energy, and waste systems, creative pollution mitigation technologies can steadily help clear the air. Cities have a responsibility to use every tool and innovation at their disposal to ensure citizens can simply breathe clean air.

 

 

 

 

Source  Happy Eco News

Mush-Rooms: How Mycelium Concrete Could Revolutionize Building Construction

Posted on by dishanth
Mush-Rooms: How Mycelium Concrete Could Revolutionize Building Construction

Mush-Rooms: Mycelium concrete (Myocrete) could revolutionize low-carbon building construction and provide another tool for building green.

A new paper published by the University of Newcastle has outlined a new method of creating a mycelium concrete construction material, with potentially far-reaching changes as a result.

The Need for Low-Carbon Building Materials

Concrete, by far, is the world’s most used building material. It is cheap, incredibly strong, and easy to manufacture. However, it carries costs elsewhere in our world.

The environmental impact of concrete manufacture, use, and transportation is incredibly high. Concrete production is responsible for 8% of all greenhouse gases worldwide, making it the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Natural materials like mycelium concrete (myocrete) might be part of the answer.

Burning fossil fuels creates most of these greenhouse gases to heat the enormous kilns used to create concrete. As well as that, there are the negative effects of mining the sand and gravel required to create concrete, which disturbs the environment and destroys natural ecosystems.

There is also the fact that concrete production requires massive amounts of water, which puts a strain on communities and areas already in need.

There have been some developments to make concrete less environmentally damaging, such as improving the efficiency of kilns so they don’t require as much heat; however, by and large, concrete production and use have been disastrous for our world.

Nevertheless, new developments have been underway to replace this widely used building material, such as mass timber. However, a unique and potentially revolutionary new material could be just around the corner, and it’s something that you’re probably more used to seeing on your plate than in your buildings.

Mushrooms in Our Walls

Mycelium-based construction material research, including mycelium concrete, has been underway for several years, as the effects of concrete production have been well-documented for decades. However, so far, the ability to scale and use mycelium in construction has been limited by the available technology and methods.

Currently, the method used in creating mycelium-derived construction materials is by filling a rigid mold with a mixture of mycelium and a food source such as grain for the mycelium. This method can produce rigid shapes, such as bricks, which can be used in construction.

However, there are limitations to the usability of these materials. For one, the strength required to compete with concrete isn’t there, and the rigid mold limits the variety of shapes and structures.

A new method created at the University of Newcastle, dubbed mycocrete (mycelium concrete), could completely change this and how construction has been done. The way mycocrete works is similar to past methods, with some distinctions.

One of them is in the mold that the paste is put into; where previous methods used rigid molds, mycocrete uses a permeable knitted mold that facilitates the growth of the mycelium by the amount of oxygen available. This flexible mold also allows the mycelium to grow in shapes that otherwise would be impossible with a rigid mold.

The process works by filling the knitted mold with a mixture of mycelium, paper powder, paper fiber clumps, water, glycerin, and xanthan gum. This is then hung up in a dark, warm, humid environment to facilitate the mycelium’s growth.

The result is a mycelium-based material significantly stronger than conventional mycelium bricks, notably much stronger than the material created with rigid molds. This is due to the amount of oxygen the mycelium has access to, given the mold’s permeability.

Myocrete is Still in the Early Stages, Though

However, despite the team’s promising results at Newcastle, myocrete mycelium concrete based buildings are still quite far off.

While continuing to develop the mycelium compound is still of major importance, the main obstacle is the fact that the factories and industries that work with the construction industry will need to be re-tooled for mycelium concrete along with new installation equipment being implemented.

Nonetheless, they have created some interesting prototypes, including the “BioKnit” project. This project was created to demonstrate the use of alternative materials in solving conventional construction design problems.

The team created BioKnit as one piece to limit weak spots inherent in joinery. Dr. Jane Scott, the author of the corresponding paper, said, “Our ambition is to transform the look, feel, and well-being of architectural spaces using mycelium concrete in combination with biobased materials such as wool, sawdust, and cellulose.”

With the priority being placed on reducing the environmental impact of construction, this new method could completely change the way we live and the spaces we live inside.

 

 

 

 

Source Happy Eco News

Researchers In Syria Have Discovered Concrete Recycling Method

Posted on by dishanth
Researchers In Syria Have Discovered Concrete Recycling Method

War is hell. This sentiment has been repeated throughout human history as the devastation and destruction of countries and communities it causes is incalculable. Syria is a prime example of how civil or otherwise war can destroy a society and its infrastructure.

The war began in the context of high youth unemployment, drought, a one-party dictatorship that crushed basic human freedoms and dignity, and extreme wealth inequality. It was a surprise to no one that in 2011, insurgency by oppressed groups in the region began in earnest, spiralling Syria into a conflict that continues to this day with no end in sight. The devastation this war has brought has caused 5.7 million people to flee the country due to the risk that the war has brought to their lives.

The war destroyed 130,000 buildings, many of these the homes of everyday people and their businesses. All this destruction is horrible, and as if they hadn’t experienced enough of it, Syria fell victim to a 7.7 Richter earthquake in February, expanding the damage even further. However, despite all this horrific destruction, serious efforts have been made to expedite the recovery and reconstruction of this battered country. 70% of the 130,000 buildings destroyed were made of reinforced concrete. Scientists have discovered that they can use a significant amount of this rubble to create new concrete, recycling what is there and saving costs compared to importing new concrete.

The study led by Professor Abdulkader Rashwani proved that recycled concrete made from the rubble of old buildings doesn’t significantly impact the mechanical performance of the new concrete. This is the first time recycled concrete has been proven to do this, as other attempts in other countries have been made. Still, due to the disparity in methods of manufacture, mechanical performance hasn’t been guaranteed. When people return, they will want to rebuild the buildings that had been destroyed.

Transportation of raw materials is one of the highest costs, and aggregate being increasingly scarce makes recycling existing materials necessary. This recycled concrete is made by crushing the rubble, removing any steel or textiles, and washing the resulting aggregate. The fine material washed out is sand and cement, and it is also being studied to determine if it can be reused.

The material was then tested for tensile and compressive strength and how much water, co2, and chlorine were absorbed. The concrete passed all of the tests, and now the protocol stands as a model for other war-torn or earthquake-damaged countries to rebuild their cities and communities. In an interview with the Guardian, Professor Rashwani said, “It was our duty to help the people there, a lot of people needed our help, so we went there and forgot about all the bad consequences. We have now started to go to some local councils and help them to put some plans in place for the future. We can at least try to make this region safer and give people some hope.”

The costs of war and conflict between nations and nations between people are often horrendous and often borne by the innocent. Most of the buildings destroyed in the fighting were homes of families and individuals who had nothing to do with the war. Yet still, they are left without homes in their home countries. Having a plan with new methods to guarantee quick reconstruction of these buildings is crucial.

The added benefit of this research is that it is a model that can be applied in other places outside Syria. Syria is simply one country at war right now, and if the path of human history indicates what’s to come, it won’t be the last one either. This research is invaluable for the everyday people ravaged by conflict or disaster, now and in the future.

 

 

 

 

Source Happy Eco News