High Performance Concrete Inspired by Marine Habitats

Innovation: Industry

ECOncrete Tech LTD.

2020

Image: mauRÍCIO SANTOS / Unsplash / CC BY SA - Creative Commons Attribution + ShareAlike

Maintain Biodiversity

The greater the amount of genetic and species variation in an ecosystem, the more resilient that ecosystem is to disturbances. Variation in ecosystems across the Earth also contributes to the Earth’s resilience to unpredictable changes. This variation is called biodiversity. Because living systems compete with each other for scarce resources, maintaining biodiversity involves creating conditions for a large variety of species to successfully co-occur and reproduce. For example, within a wetland, there are different vegetation types. This diversity results in a complex mosaic of microenvironments as the vegetation types alter air flows, light regimes, and water temperatures and chemistry. Because organisms vary in their ideal environmental conditions, these micro-environments increase the diversity of plants in the wetland. In turn, having a wetland in an otherwise dry area increases biodiversity at an even larger scale.

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Prevent Fracture/Rupture

High force impact or stress can cause materials that comprise living systems to separate into two or more pieces (called fracturing) or to break or burst suddenly (called rupturing). For example, a scallop prevents structural failure from fracture because its shell is comprised of two materials of varying stiffness. When a crack moves from the scallop’s stiff material to the less stiff one, the latter reduces the force at the tip of the crack, thereby stopping it from spreading farther.

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Control Erosion and Sediment

Ecosystems must maintain their soils on site and prevent it from being washed away. Organic matter, minerals, and other nutrients in soil support organisms from microorganisms to the largest mammals. But because of the pull of gravity, water flows unless impeded. Therefore, the presence and actions of many, diverse organisms hold soils in place and slow water to allow sediments to settle out rather than be washed downhill. For example, in forests, downed logs that fall crossways to the slope efficiently slow water flow, trapping soils carried by the water and causing water to soak into the soil. In areas lacking logs and other structures, water can flow so fast that it cuts into the soil, causing erosion that washes the soil away.

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Physically Assemble Structure

Living systems use physical materials to create structures to serve as protection, insulation, and other purposes. These structures can be internal (within or attached to the system itself), such as cell membranes, shells, and fur. They can also be external (detached), such as nests, burrows, cocoons, or webs. Because physical materials are limited and the energy required to gather and create new structures is costly, living systems must use both conservatively. Therefore, they optimize the structures’ size, weight, and density. For example, weaver birds use two types of vegetation to create their nests: strong, a few stiff fibers and numerous thin fibers. Combined, they make a strong, yet flexible, nest. An example of an internal structure is a bird’s bone. The bone is comprised of a mineral matrix assembled to create strong cross-supports and a tubular outer surface filled with air to minimize weight.

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Store Gases

Living systems sometimes store gases, such as oxygen, to help maximize respiration or for a variety of other purposes. Gases are often difficult to store because they dissipate and can easily escape. Therefore, most gas storage in living systems can only be temporary. Some examples are fish swim bladders used to control buoyancy, and respiratory sacs in birds that help them maximize access to oxygenated air.

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Brochures

ECOncrete from ECOncrete Tech LTD. facilitates the growth and regeneration of local marine species to strengthen structures over time.

Benefits

Increased biodiversity
Carbon sequestration

Applications

Marine infrastructure

UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed

Goal 9: Industry Innovation & Infrastructure
Goal 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities
Goal 12: Responsible Production & Consumption
Goal 14: Life Below Water
Goal 15: Life on Land

The Challenge

With more than 50% of the world’s population concentrated along coastlines, accelerated coastal development will likely inflict severe stress on natural ecosystems. Combined with the growing threats of sea level rise and increased extreme weather events, coastlines worldwide will require development, retrofitting and intensive maintenance.

Innovation Details

ECOncrete offers innovative, robust and environmentally sensitive concrete solutions, designed to encourage development of rich and diverse marine life as an integral part of urban and coastal marine infrastructure such as seawalls, breakwaters, bridge foundations and urban waterfronts. The proprietary technology is based on three core elements: bio-enhancing concrete compositions, complex surface textures, and science-based designs, which work in synergy to decrease the ecological footprint of concrete infrastructure while enhancing their strength and durability. Drawing inspiration from marine habitats and organisms, ECOncrete learns from and mimic forms, textures, and chemical properties from beach rock formations, rocky reefs, tide pools, mangrove roots, and other marine habitats and life forms. ECOncrete supports natural processes like calcification and the growth of oysters, corals, tube worms, and the like to help concrete structures become stronger, have a longer service life, and to better cope with extreme weather events and rising seas. The growth of these organisms also acts as an active carbon sink, offsetting some of the huge carbon footprint associated with traditional concrete. Because it increases in strength over time, restores native habitats, and reduces mitigation requirements for infrastructure projects, ECOncrete’s technologies are cost-competitive to traditional large marine infrastructure projects.

Watch how ECOncrete's new design mimics marine habitats and improves biodiversity.

Biological Model

Oysters are vital to coastal ecosystems. Oysters grab on to one another, stacking themselves like stalagmites that grow from the ocean floor. Over time, oyster clumps form extensive reefs that resemble underwater cities. They provide habitat to many aquatic species, filter water and improve its quality, and dampen waves caused by storms and ship traffic, protecting coastlines from erosion.

See Related Content

close up of oysters on the coast of virginia

Biological Strategy

Adhesive Is Both Strong and Flexible

Eastern oyster

Oysters build strong but flexible reefs using minerals in a sticky protein web.

Ray of Hope Prize

The Ray of Hope Prize® celebrates nature-inspired solutions addressing the world’s biggest environmental and sustainability challenges. Created in honor of Ray C. Anderson, founder of Interface, Inc. and a business and sustainability leader, the $100,000 Ray of Hope Prize helps startups cross a critical threshold in becoming viable businesses by amplifying their stories and providing them with equity-free funding. The prize shines a light on the innovative, nature-inspired solutions that we need to build a sustainable and resilient world. ECOncrete received the 2020 Ray of Hope Prize and was awarded $100,000 for their innovation.

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