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Scientists in London are testing a form of concrete called sugarcrete which is made from fibrous material left over from the harvest of sugarcane. The material can be made simply and hopes to provide an alternative to high-energy use construction materials.
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About The Author
Climate Change is as real as Santa Claus.
Can you eat it? Modern day reporting!
As per usual, the commentary is less than insightful or useful. It's bad enough the format of the story is simplistic but the commentary shows a complete lack of understanding of any issues. Ancient mud bricks used straw as a binder. With sun drying these bricks still form the ancient foundations of ruins in places like Mesopotamia (Iraq/Kuwait). This isn't a high tech material but useful for local small low rise builds to keep money in the local economy and to provide local building material and enterprise. Modern steel reinforced concrete uses steel, even though it rusts, because it has the same expansion and contraction rate as the concrete. In the west, CO2 injection into concrete make harder concrete through the formation of calcium carbonate. A fast look has this material having 2.5 times the compressive strength of hempcrete bricks. Uses an available byproduct. The other materials other than bagasse, seem to be lime, clay, sand, water and calcium carbonate.
How does it do in a flood or fire?
Is it a good idea removing so much biomass from the fields. Fertility goes into bricks, another insane idea of human mankind.
What is the woman's name again? How do you say it?
CO2 is gas of life, it is not evil. All global warming narratives are lies.
“ The North Pole will be ice-free in the summer by 2013 because of man-made global warming.”
Charlatan and chronic liar Al Gore 2007.
“can you eat it? I don’t think I will taste very good …” I bet ants will digress…
Also there is a sand shortage which makes concrete less feasible moving forward.
I imagine AI will be used to find even better and more economical alternatives that are carbon neutral or negative.
Where are the details, this is bagasse Crete rather than hemp Crete, nothing to see here. Add some cement and water to a hay bale and press, hey!
So massive monoculture of sugar cane is good for the environment? Good one. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Agricultural monoculture is one of the most destructive practices on the planet. The stupidity of these people.
“That’s sweet”
Or we could introduce limestone pebbles into cement. Just as strong as this idea and when the concrete cracks the limestone fills the cracks back in. Centuries old method – But then again, none of this is about saving the planet, it’s all about money.
Look at the screen on his test, it failed at 0.125MPA. concrete is way stronger 25-50MPA.
My question is, is it Vernon resistant, fire resistant and strong in high wind conditions, also do you need to install a metal or timber frame so as to pitch the roofing frame, and what about the plumbing and electrical installation, how would you install them in the walls
I love it!
❤ Sugarcrete. Cuba's going to be rockin' with this new tech.
Lets stop pulverizing our non-renewable Himalayas into concrete. Maybe the Indians will finally leave Nepal with their 200 cement companies: they are turning our sacred mountains into dust, drying up the monsoon and turning the entire subcontinent into a desert. Of course, Modi needs to stop tarmacking the subcontinent too. They plan to tarmac 22 million miles as "roads" by 2030 (if I remember the ADB report correctly.) The Asphalt Army is feeling very ambitious.
Hempcrete does the job better & more cost effective.
Very interesting, similar to Hempcrete.
One question, can it be used in earthquake prone areas?
Old constructions in my home country were made with a mix of mud and natural fibers. Earthquakes destroyed all that!
UNTILL there’s a fire 🔥
Let’s trade asbestosis for bagasosis. No thanks.
Great science-project work if you can get it.
Such a superficial fluff piece.
how is it made?
sugarcrete can attract molds in cold climates.
I hate the media. All they do is sell fear. There isn't anything new about fibrous brick. They "discovered" what people have been doing for thousands of years. So, a solution is for people who live close to sugar cane will be encouraged to use mud bricks instead of cement. We've addressed a climate change issue? Yet there is one car in Mexico, I see each day, that spews out more crap than building a dozen houses with straw will save. You haven't solved crap.
A variant of hempcrete.
Not sure why they're so stubborn on using Hemp, uses less water than sugar cane too
Does sugarcrete provide the hvac and insulation dividends similar to that of hempcrete already being used in parts of the US?
Same question in regards to whether or not sugarcrete is more flame retardant, fire proof?
"Pumping 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air EVERY DAY"?? That can't be so, tell me some one.
Judging by some of the comments some viewers have wasted their time.
This is a replacement for mud or thatch huts, not modern buildings.
I have news for you if you think you are going to slow the use of concrete. The oil companies will hire mercenaries to come directly to your front door.
Most certainly not scalable. Global cement production is 4Gton per year. When mixed in with sand, rocks and water the weight reaches about 25 Gton per year. Global wugar cane production is 1.8Gton per year, after extracting sugar and drying it remains 0.2Gton.
So it can roughly replace order 1-3 percent of existing concrete flux, assuming ALL of it gets used. There are alternative uses such as biochar. The type of reached conducted in this large "sustainability centers" are absolutely misinformed.
I really like being positive but this one isn't so convincing. They conveniently forgot to mention the high risks involved in case of fire. It will be like living in a house made of hay.
It sounds promising but this should go through more tests to ensure it can reliably replace concrete. Durability, weather resistance, cost, chemical weaknesses, etc. I don’t want this to replace concrete until these scientists have covered all their bases properly; I’d rather not see a news report covering a sugarcrete structure breaking down and getting tons of people hurt or killed because someone didn’t double check their work.