Synthetic biology for the development of bio-based binders for greener construction materials
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Synthetic Biology Prospective
Synthetic biology for the development of bio-based binders for greener construction materials Virginia Echavarri-Bravo, Ian Eggington, and Louise E. Horsfall 3FF, UK
, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9
Address all correspondence to Louise E. Horsfall at [email protected] (Received 13 December 2018; accepted 18 March 2019)
Abstract The development of more sustainable construction materials is a crucial step toward the reduction of CO2 emissions to mitigate climate change issues and minimize environmental impacts of the associated industries. Therefore, there is a growing demand for bio-based binders which are not only safer toward human and environmental health but also facilitate cleaner disposal of the construction materials and enable their compostability. Here, we summarize the most relevant bio-based polymers and molecules with applications in the construction sector. Due to the biologic nature of these materials, the existing biotechnologic processes, including synthetic biology, for their development and production have been evaluated.
Introduction The emissions of the construction industry, which includes the production and use of conventional building materials such as bricks, concrete, and metal, were responsible for 20% of the worldwide CO2 emissions in 2014.[1] These carbon emissions from the construction industry are projected to contribute more than 31% by 2020 and 52% by 2050.[2] The level of embodied CO2 in conventional construction materials is very high[3] and urgently needs to be reduced to comply with climate change policies.[4] This embodied carbon of a material (EC, kgCO2e/kgMAT) is calculated based on criteria such as the energy required for the extraction and transportation of the raw materials, manufacturing process, building process on-site, use stage, and finally the management of the materials at the end of their service life (e.g., demolition and deposition in landfill or recycling).[5–7] A comprehensive review published recently by Pomponi and Moncaster[7] showed relevant figures that enable the identification of the most relevant factors that influence the EC of building materials; steel for instance exhibits the highest EC (generally over 1.5 kgCO2e/kgMAT), whereas the EC of recycled steel is generally well below 0.5 kgCO2e/ kgMAT. Similarly to steel, high temperatures are required for the production of cement, thus these very energy-intensive manufacturing processes increase the EC of these two very common construction materials. In addition to this, the current technology for the production of high-quality steel relies mostly on coal (70% of global steel production in 2017[8]). The transition to cleaner alternatives such as DRI-H-EAF route (hydrogen-based direct reduced iron which is fed in to an electric-arc-furnace) or PDSP (hydrogen-based
plasma-direct-steel-production) would make electricity a crucial input entailing not only high technologic challenges but also with consequences that would need to be addre
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