Biorock

Biorock is the name for a process developed by Wolf Hilbertz process for electrolytically induced accretion ( deposition ) of dissolved minerals in seawater of 3D metal grids with the aim to create a foundation for artificial coral reefs.

History

It has been developed Biorock technology by Wolf Hilbertz in the 1970s. As a young man he was looking for alternative building materials. On a visit to a graduation in Bad Salzuflen he accidentally discovered a solid deposit on the walls. They arose from the fact that a salt solution was dripped onto twigs for spa guests. The salt ions in the brine thus produced fog had a beneficial effect on the airways of the spa guests. However, part of the salts sat as solid deposit on the walls from.

Once his interest was piqued, he experimented with seawater. In 1974, he sank a wire rack in salt water and put on a DC. The very next morning a thin white layer of aragonite and brucite had deposited on the wire rack.

Technology

In seawater frames made ​​of structural steel and metal mesh to be sunk with the desired shape, flows through the weak direct current. By the electrolysis of the sea water into its chemical constituents, hydrogen and oxygen is broken. The steel structure in this case is the negative pole and thus the cathode. Presumably through concentration increase and the local increase of the pH value forms on her a firm crust of the dissolved salts in seawater aragonite (calcium carbonate ) and brucite ( magnesium hydroxide). The crystallized material on the steel has a whitish to gray in color and resembles in its material properties of concrete. Per year of construction material grows at a rate of one to three centimeters to the entire surface. The size and shape of the steel structures are not relevant, as long as you provide enough direct current. With the variation of the current strength can be used to determine the strength of the future building material. When a large current is more soft brucite added onto the steel and the process is accelerated. At a low current intensity of the process takes longer and it is deposited mainly on the hard aragonite.

Due to their operating principle of the form of hand signals and diversity are no limits. The sea, the power supply and the time to ensure that from this construction, for example, a building is.

Energy expenditure compared

For burning of cement for the conventional production of concrete temperatures of 1400 ° C are required. To have been mostly fossil fuels. Biorock the method requires much less energy as compared to the production of a component in a conventional manner, since only 1,000 kWh tonne building material can be produced.

This current can be environmentally friendly generated using wind turbines or solar panels on site. For a high breaking load of the building material requires a current of about one ampere per square meter surface of the cathode. The load capacity is 300 kilograms per square centimeter, about as much as commercially available lightweight concrete.

If the deposited hydrogen is collected, it is, for example, for the operation of a fuel cell, are available.

Application for the creation of artificial reefs

Among other Hilbertz Wolf was also inspired by the corals and their growth. Together with the biochemist and coral researcher Tom Goreau he made with the application of Biorock technology for the survival of many. Due to coral bleaching heavily damaged reefs in Jamaica, Seychelles, off the Maldives Ihuru Island, in Panama and in Bali Among other things, there artificial reefs were created. By 2008 there were over 15 countries Biorock projects in Thailand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Mexico.

Saya de Malha Sea area in the Indian Ocean they tried in 1997 and 2002 with the Biorock technology to create an artificial island.

If, on the steel structures broken, live corals, they grow strong and spread out on the solid surface. Because the polyps of corals use a large part of their energy to extract calcium and magnesium ions from the sea water. With the Mineralakkretion on the steel man saves them the energy needed to create a solid base itself. This makes them grow four times faster than under natural circumstances.

Biorockstrukturen have great potential as a breakwater, as they are getting stronger with age. If the structure of storms and high waves or damaged by the collision with a ship, they repaired with the help of Mineralakkretion to a large extent by itself