Bio-Cemented Sandstone Bricks

In many regions around the world typical building materials such as wood and concrete are expensive or difficult to obtain. Many of these regions are arid with modest natural construction resources, but plenty of sand. Cementing sand into sandstone through microbial activity could provide a new and more sustainable building material in the form of “bio-bricks”. The cementation process uses sand, naturally occurring soil bacteria, urea and calcium. The purpose of this paper is to describe the treatment processes that have been used to make the bio-bricks and to present and discuss the preliminary results of the research. Testing results indicate that the bio-bricks made so far have lower strengths than comparable red clay bricks. Future research goals include exploring additional treatment techniques to yield structural grade bricks that meet construction needs.